Teen warns others about vaping after double-lung transplant: "I couldn't talk"
Grosse Pointe, Michigan — A 17-year-old who received a double-lung transplant after his lungs were irreversibly damaged is now warning others about vaping.
Daniel Ament remembers vaping last September and then waking up more than a month later, after an emergency double-lung transplant to save his life.
"I couldn't talk or move, because my muscles had all atrophied," Ament said. "I didn't have enough strength to lift up my head."
Now he's sharing his story to warn against e-cigarettes.
"I just don't want this to happen to other people," Ament said.
- FDA bans some vaping products, including fruit and mint flavors
- Over 5 million children and teens are vaping in the U.S., researchers say
But nicotine addiction from vaping is hard to break, even in his own family. Ament's mother Tammy said his twin brother can't stop vaping.
"I asked him this morning if he wants to stop and if he wants my help to get help and he said, 'Maybe.' But he stopped for a while, but he went back to it," she said.
Daniel now takes 20 pills a day and will be on medication for the rest of his life. His dream of being a Navy SEAL is finished. But today, his goal is more modest: To live.