Austin Adams told NBC that in early 2018, he had been trying to quit smoking, so he wanted to start using electronic cigarettes instead. His mother, Kailani Burton, purchased a device for him from the company VGOD after her son assured her that vaping was safe.
A 17-year-old traveled 250 miles with a bloody mouth, broken teeth and a hole in his jaw, from a small town in Nevada to a pediatric hospital in Utah. What he told doctors shocked them: He was vaping when his e-cigarette exploded in his face. https://t.co/War5RO3gJJ
— CNN International (@cnni) June 20, 2019
On March 26, 2018, the device exploded in his mouth.
According to the New England Journal of Medicine, the explosion left Adams with lacerations in his mouth, "disrupted lower incisors" and a shattered jaw.
Burton drove Adams from Ely, Nevada, to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, roughly five hours away, according to The Washington Post.
Dr. Katie Russell, the trauma medical director at the hospital, told the Post that Adams had a swollen jaw and lip and noted that “a two-centimeter piece of his jaw was just blown to pieces.”
It took two surgeries to fix Adams' jaw, including placing titanium plates to help stabilize the bone.
VGOD has not yet responded to the Post’s request for comment.
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