A California teenager suffered severe injuries to his face and hands after a vape exploded, burning through bones and ligaments.
Fifteen-year-old Aiden Dean Adams was vaping with friends under an overpass close to his Bakersfield home when the nicotine-filled device combusted as he lifted it to his mouth, sending shrapnel into his face.
Aiden walked toward the road, his hand bloody and maimed, and stuck it out to hitch a ride with a passing driver who took him home to shocked parents. They called 911 and within minutes an ambulance appeared to take Aiden to the hospital.
Doctors spent hours operating on his mangled hands, including restoring his thumb, which was ‘almost completely severed off’ and amputating part of his middle and index fingertips.
The teen had been sneakily vaping since he was ten. His parents would find vapes around his room and get suspicious when he would slink out of the house for walks.
His father, Robert Dean Adams, said he and his wife had pleaded with Aiden not to do it because of the myriad health risks, including lung disease, heart injury, and addiction: ‘But I’m not ignorant – he’s a teenager.’
Mr Adams said he was shocked to find his son on his doorstep with his hand ‘just turned inside out… Digits were hanging. A lot of tissue exposure, you could see bone, fingers, hand, ligaments.’
On the way to the hospital, Mr and Mrs Adams thought their son might die. ‘What happened to him – the vape exploding,’ Mr Adams said, ‘was never in my mind.’
After the explosion, surgeons tried to stitch up his hand. His thumb was nearly severed off, the bone was exposed in his palms, and his index and middle fingers were hanging on by a thread
The explosion sent shrapnel flying into Aiden’s face. According to his father, it was an ‘ugly’ sight and his hands were ‘horrible’
Aiden’s thumb was saved, but several fingertips were not. Recovery will likely take several weeks and he’ll be out of school until further notice.
Aiden was known to pick up discarded vapes off the ground and modify them so that they worked again.
This time, Aiden said he had had the vape for a while and had gotten it from another person. But he wouldn’t elaborate further.
Before his hands were mangled in the explosion, he had walked to a nearby overpass to meet his friends.
His parents said he had been in a good mood before he left compared to his usually sullen mood.
The vape he used, a Geek Vape Orange Fcuking Fab Geek Bar Pulse X 25k, was not working correctly.
Aiden hit it against the ground, thinking something within the device was misaligned or stuck and could be knocked into place.
He brought it to his mouth, and ‘Boom!’ his father said. ‘A big flash is all [Aiden] remembers.’
Doctors were able to salvage Aiden’s thumb and reattach it, but had to amputate the tips of his middle and index fingers on one hand
Luckily, someone noticed the boy and scooped him up. Luckily again, Aiden was still in his right mind and could calmly provide his address to the driver.
Mr Adams said he had never seen an explosion injury up close until the stranger helped his son through the door. Both hands were ‘horrible,’ he said.
Mr Adams said: ‘The palm of his hand was just turned inside out. It’s the first time I’d ever seen an explosive injury first-hand.
‘There was a lot of soft tissue damage. Digits were hanging. A lot of tissue exposure you could see bone, fingers, hand, ligaments.
‘His whole inside left hand was completely exposed. It did almost completely sever his thumb. The very base of the thumb all the way down to where it meets the wrist. That was all hanging off.
He added that some of Aiden’s hair had been singed off, shrapnel had pierced his face, and his shirt was covered in blood.
Mrs Adams called for an ambulance while Mr Adams wrapped their son’s hand in a towel. Aiden, meanwhile, was calm and collected the whole time, they said.
While Aiden’s outcome is expected to be positive, it will be a long road to acceptance of damage done.
The explosion burned Aiden’s chest as well as his hands. When he got home, Aiden’s hair was singed, his shirt was burnt, and the material was still smouldering
The vape he used, a Geek Vape Orange Fcuking Fab Geek Bar Pulse X 25k, was not working correctly. He hit it against the ground, thinking something within the device was misaligned or stuck and could be knocked into place
Aiden will recover, though it will take several weeks. The injury will put his life on hold for a while, as he’ll be out of school until further notice
He had recently bought a guitar and hoped to learn how to play. He lost that ability.
Mr Adams is a former smoker and ‘never trusted’ vapes when they hit the mainstream in the mid-2010s. Over just a few months, the popularity of vapes began to overtake that of cigarettes.
About two decades ago, nearly 30 percent of teens smoked cigarettes. This year, it was just 1.7 percent.
Today, vapes are far more popular in that age group than cigarettes. According to the federal government’s 2024 Youth Tobacco Survey, 2.25 million middle- and high school students were current users of any nicotine product, including cigarettes, vapes, and pouches.
But health officials were actually optimistic about those findings. The 2024 figures suggest that fewer teens are trying e-cigarettes and getting hooked and perhaps more teens than ever are quitting.
While 2.5 million teens used tobacco in 2024, that total was lower than 2023’s total of 2.8 million. E-cigarette use specifically fell considerably in that year-long period, from 2.13 million to 1.63 million.
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The vaping industry has been in the government’s crosshairs for nearly a decade for targeting a young audience in their viral marketing campaigns and keeping their attention with fun, innocuous-looking packaging and flavors.
Mr Adams said: ‘This stuff popped up out of nowhere. I don’t remember it ever being advertised to people other than seeing kids with it.
‘That’s who you see more than anybody are the children. I never trusted these things. I don’t like them.’
He added: ‘But we’ve put a device out there that can get into the hands of kids that apparently has a highly explosive possibility. That right there, people need to know about and be educated on. If they were, these things probably wouldn’t be here.’
