{"id":8948,"date":"2025-12-01T12:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/curiousdrive.com\/?p=8948"},"modified":"2025-12-03T21:33:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T21:33:34","slug":"shocking-photo-shows-teens-blackened-and-shrivelled-lung-after-vaping-for-three-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/curiousdrive.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/01\/shocking-photo-shows-teens-blackened-and-shrivelled-lung-after-vaping-for-three-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking photo shows teen\u2019s blackened and shrivelled lung after vaping for three years"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
LeeRay was horrified by what doctors found (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LeeRay King was just 14 when he first picked up a vape<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teenager quickly became addicted, going through ‘four disposables<\/a> in a week’. He confesses to vaping ‘all day, every day.’<\/p>\n

One night, LeeRay woke in agony and was rushed to hospital, where the devastating impact of his habit was revealed.<\/p>\n

Doctors<\/a> eventually had no choice but to remove some of LeeRay’s lung \u2014 and in a bid to make him see the error of his ways, gave him a bag containing parts of his own blackened organ, as a reminder of just how much trauma he’d put his own body through.<\/p>\n

The now 17-year-old says he’ll ‘never touch a vape again.’<\/p>\n

It was August 2024 when LeeRay, from Wellington, New Zealand, woke up in the middle of the night, struggling to breathe and with excruciating pain on his left side.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"\"\t<\/div>
Part of LeeRay’s lung was black, brown, and scarred (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His mum, Kylee, shares that she woke up to hundreds of missed calls from her son: ‘I decided to take him to hospital and he keeled over in the front seat of the car and burst into tears in excruciating pain.’<\/p>\n

When the pair arrived at the hospital, doctors conducted a number of different scans, ultimately finding that LeeRay has a very large pneumothorax. In non-medical terms: his left lung had collapsed.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the next four months, the teenager’s left lung collapsed a further four times.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to repair the damage, doctors eventually performed a pleurodesis \u2014 a procedure that creates a strong adhesion between the lung and the chest wall to prevent the re-accumulation of fluid.<\/p>\n

\n
\n\t\t\"PIC\t<\/div>
LeeRay had just finished college when he fell ill (Picture: Kennedy News and Media)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, this wasn’t enough to solve the problem entirely.<\/p>\n

So, LeeRay then underwent procedure to remove a lining of the chest wall. known as a pleurectomy.<\/p>\n

But it was the final surgery that had the biggest impact.<\/p>\n

During LeeRay’s third time going under the knife, doctors removed a damaged chunk of his lung \u2014 handing the teenager a bag of his own blackened organ, as a reminder of just how much trauma he’d put his own body through.<\/p>\n

Cleaning<\/a> supervisor Kylee has called the entire ordeal ‘horrifying.’ <\/p>\n

‘When we picked it up, LeeRay pulled it out and we were both like “oh my god”,’ she shared.<\/p>\n

She added: ‘I never realised vapes could do this. They advertise it to help give up smoking. You’re pretty much intentionally drowning your insides.’<\/p>\n

LeeRay was equally shocked: ‘[What they found] made me realise I had fully damaged my lung. It was because of vaping and how much I was doing it a day,’ he says.<\/p>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t\tWhat are the signs your lung has collapsed?\t\t\t<\/h2>\n
\n