Teen Needed Transplant After Lungs ‘Irreparably Damaged' From Vaping

The 17-year-old boy "faced certain death if it weren’t for the lung transplant," doctors said

A 17-year-old boy is believed to be the first person to receive a double lung transplant because of the vaping-related illness that has sickened thousands nationwide.

Doctors at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, where the teen was treated, said they had never seen such scarring on someone's lungs from vaping, NBC News reports.

In a Facebook post, the Henry Ford Health System said that the team of experts "recently performed the first double lung transplant in the U.S. for a patient whose lungs were irreparably damaged from vaping."

"This is an evil that I haven't faced before," Dr. Hassan Nemeh, a thoracic specialist at Henry Ford Health System, said during a news conference Tuesday.

The doctors refused to answer questions about what the boy had been vaping before becoming ill. Instead, they had one message: Stop vaping, whatever it is — just stop.

"We beg of you," said Dr. Nicholas Yeldo, a critical care physician with the hospital system. "We don’t want to be taking care of you next."

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