A factory worker has issued a warning to vape users after his exploded causing devastating facial injuries.
The victim, who wishes to be known only as Paul, had been considering quitting the habit completely when the battery of his vape was destroyed by a forceful explosion as he was taking a puff.
The 39-year-old mill operator from Bedale, now faces a protracted series of medical procedures to rebuild his shattered teeth and the inside of his mouth.
Three teeth were blown from his mouth but he faces losing seven in total as they were so badly damaged it may be impossible to save them.
The incident happened as Paul was leaving work and he was forced to stagger back to offices, his face and hands covered in blood, to raise the alarm.
He said: “I’m not one for the whole “look at me, feel sorry for me”
nonsense, however, being aware of how big the whole vaping industry is these days, I felt I had to say something.
“As someone who’s been doing it almost 10 years myself, I couldn’t stand the guilt of not speaking up and having this happen to someone else.
“It happened at the end of a Friday afternoon as I was walking to my car after a long week at work.
“I went to take a drag, there was nothing, which I thought was weird, I tried again and it exploded.
“There was so much blood everywhere and my mouth was so mangled that I couldn’t actually tell if I’d blown a hole right up into my brain.
“For about a minute I genuinely thought I might be about to die, I was in shock and blind panic, I didn’t know which way to run.
“It must have been like something out of a horror movie when I knocked on the window next to one of the office staff sitting at their desk.
“I was standing there, my face and both hands completely covered, looking like a scene out of Fight Club, unable to speak. The poor bloke will be having nightmares.”
Paul was taken to Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, North Yorks, but his tongue was so swollen that he was choking and he was rushed to a resuscitation unit at Middlesbrough’s James Cook Hospital.
He is now facing a long and painful recovery and thousands of pounds worth of private dental treatment.
Paul said: “Three upper teeth were completely knocked out and four other teeth badly damaged.
“Of the 3 teeth knocked out, two were recovered by a colleague at the time and were able to be pushed back in while I was in resusc at James Cook.
“However, there is apparently a good chance that all the teeth, so seven in total, will need replacing with implants, as the reinstated teeth are unlikely to take to the bone and those teeth that were damaged, currently have the roots exposed and are likely to die as well.
“My tongue received a heavy trauma, which led to one side swelling massively, making it difficult for me to swallow, which was why I was rushed to resusc.
“The back of my throat on one side was black and as far as I could see, looked like a hole had been blasted through the back of my throat. “
Paul says the battery of the vape, bought from Amazon from a Chinese manufacturer, was the part which exploded.
He is currently considering legal action and is looking for an injury lawyer to take on his case.
Paul added: “If anyone is thinking – as I have been for the last 10 years – that the occasional stories you hear online about people’s vape exploding are just in America or made up by people who are anti vaping and make up or exaggerate something that’s extremely unlikely to ever happen, then don’t be so sure.
“I apologise to anyone who’s going to inevitably receive grief from their loved ones as a result of me saying this, I’m sure most people will be absolutely fine and I’m just the one in a million unlucky, but if it stops anyone else going through this, I’m fine with that.”
He was using a DEJAVU DJV Mech Mod with an eleaf melo 3 tank but he says it was the Efest 3000mah 18650 battery which blew up, one of two he bought as a pair in September.
Efest, based in Shenzhen, China, have been approached for comment.
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