LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A Tustin man is stable after an E-cigarette exploded in his mouth.

Jesse Milk spent the last week in an Orange County hospital recovering after an E-cig explosion caused serious damage to his mouth.

A small piece of the apparatus was embedded in his mouth and had to be surgically removed.

The 26-year-old suffered second-degree burns and was stunned to find a piece of the E-cig lodged in his tongue when he arrived at the hospital.

Luckily for Milk, three of his teeth, now shattered, slowed down the force of the E-cig part or he could have choked to death.

“He had to be taken to surgery immediately so that this part of the E-cigarette that was embedded in his tongue had to be removed, and then his tongue had to be repaired, along with the lip area around it,” director of the OC Burn Center Andrea Dunkelman said.

After seven days, Milk remains in the hospital.

At the time of the accident, Milk’s E-cig battery was almost dead.

He says he will never get near one again.

“I don’t even want to see it; it’s scary,” he said.