A factory worker has issued a desperate warning to vape users after his device exploded – leading to him sustaining devastating facial injuries including shattered teeth and his hands and face covered in blood.
The victim, who wishes to be known as Paul, had been considering quitting the habit completely after doing it for ten years when the battery of his vape was destroyed by an explosion as he was using the vape on his way from leaving work.
During the horror incident, 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.
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The 39-year-old mill operator from Bedale, North Yorkshire, also now faces a series of medical procedures to rebuild his shattered teeth and the inside of his mouth, which were covered in blood following the vape explosion.
"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,” he said.
"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.”
During the incident, ‘Paul’ believed that he might die and was in “shock and blind panic”.
"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,” he added.
In the aftermath of the vaping incident, Paul was taken to Friarage Hospital, Northallerton, 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.
He added: "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 rescue.
"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.
"If anyone is thinking - as I have been for the last ten 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.”
Paul says the battery of the vape, bought from Amazon from a Chinese manufacturer, was the part which exploded.
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.
He is currently considering legal action and is looking for an injury lawyer to take on his case.
Efest, based in Shenzhen, China, has been approached for comment.
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