Fourteen-Year-Old Was Partially Blinded by Exploding E-cigarette

Smoking is one of the number killers worldwide, as it can lead to a wide array of fatal conditions. Some forms of heart disease, as well as most forms of the world’s most deadly cancers are highly precipitated by smoking, all of them leading killers worldwide. But sometimes, smoking can cause freak accidents that lead to life-long consequences.

While most know that smoking is bad for you but choose to keep the unhealthy habit anyway, there’s no way that they could assume that you could go blind because of the habit. Something like this just happened in New York, as a fourteen-year-old was partially blinded by exploding E-cigarette.

Exploding vape pen

Leor Domatov, a fourteen year old boy living in New York City, had no idea exactly how disastrous his daytime mall adventure would turn out to be. On the 5^th of April, Leor and two friends took the B9 bus to the Kings Plaza mall in Brooklyn. After frolicking around the mall for a while, the three headed to the Plaza Vapes Kiosk.

There, the three decided to try out different e-cigarettes, and despite the fact that the kids were underage and the legal age to handle vape devices in 21, the clerk allowed them to use the products. This was when all hell broke loose, as the vape pen Leor was trying was plugged into the wrong battery and it exploded.

Leor was seriously injured and rushed to the hospital, while the clerk is going to be sued by the Domatov family’s lawyer, Marc Freund, of the firm Lipsig, Shapey, Manus and Moverman P.C. Had the clerk asked for some ID or had the vape pen been plugged into the correct battery, all of this could have been avoided.

Outcome and consequences

When the battery exploded, both of Leor’s eyes were penetrated by metal shards from it, and it also left a huge gash on one of his hands. The fourteen year old kid also suffered intense chemical burns, but his eyes took the bulk of the damage.

His left cornea was completely cut through by a metal shard, leaving Leor unable to see from his left eye, while the left cornea was only cut halfway through, allowing the eighth grader a tiny bit of vision. The chemicals that got in his eyes and on his hands aren’t helping either.

The doctors aren’t sure whether the boy will ever see again, but otherwise, his condition is pretty much stable. As the city’s Department of Consumer Affairs is looking into the incident, the outraged family is planning to sue the irresponsible clerk for allowing minors to handle the electronic cigarettes.

Image source: Wikimedia