EXCLUSIVE: Hudson Williams first made the switch from smoking cigarettes to vaping in 2019 because it ‘tasted better’ but a few years later, he experienced chest pain like he’d ‘been shot’
A factory worker who vaped ‘every 10 seconds’ claims he was finally given the wake-up call he needed to quit for good. Hudson Williams first made the switch from smoking cigarettes to vaping in 2019 because it ‘tasted better’.
But after six years of puffing on disposable vapes, the 23-year-old was hospitalised on August 30 after experiencing sharp chest pains, which ‘felt like being shot in the chest with a gun’.
Hudson was rushed to hospital where he was diagnosed with a collapsed lung and was warned by doctors that it could happen again – even if he quits. The cement plant worker admits that he had seen posts online warning of some of the potential dangers of vaping but ‘didn’t think it would happen to him’.
Hudson said the hospital admission was ‘the wake-up call he needed’ to quit, after he’d become so addicted to his vape that he would puff on it ‘every 10 seconds’.
He now wants to warn other people of the potential dangers of vaping and is encouraging them to quit too. Hudson, from Austin, Texas, US, said: “I was smoking cigarettes for a year prior to when I started vaping.
“A lot of my friends had also started vaping and I made the switch because it tasted better. When I first started it wasn’t very much, but as I vaped throughout my life it would happen a lot more.
“I was hitting my vape every 10 seconds and I would get through two or three disposable vapes in a month. On August 30th I was just sitting in the truck at work when all of a sudden I felt what felt like heartburn.
“Within about 15 minutes it felt as if somebody had shot me in the chest with a shotgun. I couldn’t breathe and the pain radiated around my rotator cuff, my collar bone, my heart, the middle of the chest, my neck, my earlobe, the bottom of my lung and my back.
“My friend drove me to the hospital and when I got there they [the doctors] told me that my lung had collapsed by 10%.”
There, Hudson was given pain medication and oxygen by doctors and had to stay in hospital overnight.
Hudson says he is ‘lucky’ that his lung only collapsed by 10% but says doctors have warned him that it could happen again – even if he quits.
Hudson said: “I’m pretty lucky because some people have a full collapse, or even both lungs collapse. The doctors said that there was a 100% chance that this had been caused by vaping and they also told me that it could happen again, even if I don’t vape.
“It was scary. I definitely regretted the fact that I’d vaped.”
Shaken up by what happened, Hudson says that the hospital admission was the ‘wake-up call’ he needed to finally quit vaping after previous failed attempts. He’s now warning other vapers to ditch the habit too.
Hudson said: “I’d seen posts about it before [the dangers of vaping]. But it was one of those things where it hadn’t happened to anyone that I knew so I didn’t think it mattered – or that it would happen to me.
“I quit vaping as soon as this happened. It was 100% the wake-up call that I needed to quit for good. I would say to anyone don’t vape, it’s not cool. It’s hard to quit and it’s a lot easier said than done.
“It’s a nasty habit and it’s hard to get out of, but it’s definitely possible.”
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