Chance Ammirata suffered a collapsed lung, which he has put down to his vaping habit (Picture: Chance Ammirata/Instagram)

A teenager whose lung collapsed has blamed toxic chemicals in his Juul pods for his brush with death.

Chance Ammirata vaped about one Juul pod every two days – roughly the equivalent of 10 cigarettes-worth of nicotine a day.

Last week he ended up having emergency surgery after what he thought was a strained muscle ended up being devastating lung damage.

Chance took up vaping about 18 months ago, thinking they were a safe alternative to cigarettes.


Last Monday he recalled struggling to sleep because his left side was painful.

The 18-year-old went bowling with a friend but just sitting upright was excruciating.

Chance says doctors told him the black dots on his lungs were down to the Juul pods (Picture: Chance Ammirata/Instagram)

He told DailyMail.com: ‘I remember she made me laugh and it felt like my chest was collapsing, like I was having a heart attack.’



Chance went to hospital but assumed he had just pulled a muscle.

The pain got worse over the course of the next five hours and a team of doctors rushed to his bedside in Florida, USA.

He continued: ‘Seven surgeons came in, and it’s scary when you see seven surgeons come in.

‘You think they’re going to tell you you have like five days to live.’

Chance had been vaping with the mint Juul pods for about 18 months (Picture: Getty)

Medics told Chance that there was a hole in his left lung and it had collapsed.

They rushed him into surgery to have a tube inserted into the lung to keep it inflated while they repaired the damage.

While operating, they also saw a series of black dots on his lungs – which Chance believes were caused by his mint Juul pods.

He added: ‘When they did the actual major surgery to reinflate my lungs, the surgeon said “whatever you’ve been smoking has been leaving these black dots on your lungs.”’

The surgeons repaired the hole but the ‘black dots’ could take years to disappear – if they ever vanish at all.

Chance said the pain of the collapsed lung felt like a heart attack (Picture: Chance Ammirata/Instagram)

Chance has been told that he should not do cross-country running any more, he can never scuba dive and it will be a while before he can fly.

He is due to have the tube removed from his chest this week and he is hoping to start a business course at Florida International University later this month.

He added: ‘I’ve never smoked cigarettes – it’s the Juul.’

He is now warning others to stop vaping, saying: ‘I really didn’t believe in addiction or that it could affect me or that I could get addicted until I did.

‘And then I suffered the consequences of my decisions.’

Chance posted pictures of his lungs on Instagram as a warning to other smokers (Picture: Chance Ammirata/Instagram)

Juul and other vapes have promoted themselves as a safe alternative to traditional smoking but doctors are starting to question that.

Earlier this month, 14 teens and young adults in Wisconsin were hospitalised with severe lung diseases and breathing problems because of their vaping habits.

In the US, where Chance lives, the Food and Drug Administration are responsible for setting the laws around smoking.

They do not cap the nicotine content for cigarettes or vapes and the chemicals in them vary from product to product.



In the UK, Pubic Health England (PHE) promotes e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to smoking but a number of academics say they are ignoring the health risks.

Experts in the UK say not enough is known about e-cigarettes despite them being promoted as a safe alternative to smoking (Picture: AFP)

Prof Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said: ‘The nicotine in e-cigarettes in not a harmless drug and then there are all these other things such as flavourings that are inhaled.

‘We haven’t had e-cigarettes for long enough to know the true effects.

‘But when we look at the evidence we do have, there’s enough grounds for serious concerns.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted Juul for comment.