Raymond Dehn, a 24-year-old from Buffalo, has issued a warning to others after being hospitalized due to a severe health issue linked to his vaping habit. Dehn, who started vaping at 15, had been using both regular vapes and cannabis THC pens for nearly a decade. His habit came to a sudden halt after a terrifying health scare.
On September 13, after vaping in his car, Dehn suddenly felt intense pain between his shoulder blades. He tried to walk it off but collapsed shortly afterward in a mall. An ambulance rushed him to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed him with a spontaneous pneumothorax—a collapsed lung.
Despite being young and otherwise healthy, Dehn was shocked by the diagnosis. The doctors couldn’t pinpoint the exact cause of the lung collapse but noted a troubling trend: in the past six months, several other young people with collapsed lungs had come into the hospital, and the only common factor among them was vaping.
Raymond Dehn’s lung collapsed (SWNS)
The experience left Dehn with a deep fear of it happening again, and he has since sworn off vaping. Having spent four nights in the hospital with a chest tube to reinflate his lung, he’s now using alternatives like nicotine pouches and THC edibles.
His warning to others: “I want other young people to be aware of how dangerous vaping can be.”
For Dehn, the whole experience was a “wake-up call,” and he’s advocating for young people to reconsider vaping, especially as its long-term health effects remain unclear.
