A 15-year-old boy was severely dehydrated due to heavy e-cigarette use. His urine had turned black.
- A 15-year-old boy was hospitalized with severe dehydration: his urine was black.
- According to doctors, his excessive consumption of electronic cigarettes may have caused dehydration.
- In France, the sale of electronic cigarettes and associated products is prohibited to minors.
Excessive vaping can be dangerous. Jake Melton, a 15-year-old American, recently experienced this. An article from Daily Email recounts how the boy found himself severely dehydrated and rushed to hospital: his urine had turned black.
A teenager unconscious and severely dehydrated from electronic cigarettes
In a post Facebook, his mother, Melony Sample, says her son wasn’t feeling well when she drove him to school. “I thought he was making fun of me, because he likes to make people laugh.”, she specifies. But when he arrived at the school, he began to feel dizzy and nauseated. Less than ten minutes later, his mother received a phone call from the infirmary: her son was disoriented, with red eyes. School medical staff believed the child was drugged or had been drugged without their knowledge. Alerted, the mother came back to pick up her son and took him to the emergency room: there, the boy became unconscious. Doctors immediately ran tests and discovered he was severely dehydrated. His urine had turned black and his kidneys were in danger.
Electronic cigarette: how can it cause dehydration?
In the Daily Email, doctors believe that this condition is the direct result of the electronic cigarette that he used constantly throughout the day. “Nicotine, found in some vapes, has long been known to dehydrate the body, primarily due to its impact on the complex balance of fluid and salt in the body., says the article. The liquids used in these devices contain propylene glycol, but the substance can retain water molecules and cause dehydration.
According to Jake’s mother, this was made worse by her son’s habits. He works part-time in a construction company, and vapes throughout the day. For her, it made her forget her basic needs, like drinking or eating. But she didn’t know that he vaped so much: his daily nicotine consumption was equivalent to that of a pack of 20 cigarettes. “I knew he vaped a lot, but not like this, she confides to Daily Email. (…) I thought it was under control.”
Warn about the risks of electronic cigarettes
After 30 hours of unconsciousness and intravenous rehydration, the boy returned home. “He’s still really confused,” she warns. He does not remember what happened and explained to his mother that he would not stop vaping. “I will continue to do it knowing the risks and side effects.”, he whispered to her. Melony Sample wants to alert parents to the risks of electronic cigarettes. She wants a total ban on these vaping devices.
In France, the public health code states that he East “prohibits the sale or offering free of charge in all businesses or public places to minors under the age of eighteen of electronic vaping devices or refill bottles associated with them“.
