A heartbroken mother has come forward to speak about the dangers of vaping after her son passed away, warning others about the 'false sense of security' that comes with using e-cigarettes. She stressed it's not only your lungs that can suffer.
On December 12 of last year, 34-year-old Danny Clark from Chester, Pennsylvania, sadly died after using vapes for just a little over a year.
Danny had started vaping more frequently in October 2023. According to his mom, it was partly because his girlfriend didn’t like the smell of cigarettes.
He also believed vaping was a ‘safer option’, especially after previously smoking roughly a pack of cigarettes a day.
But then, towards the end of 2024, Danny’s mother, Cindi, received a call that left her in complete disbelief.
Her older son phoned to tell her that Danny had died. All the family knew at the time was that “he went to bed and he didn’t wake up.”
Danny's Symptoms Before He Passed
The night before Danny died, his girlfriend shared with Cindi that he had been struggling with his balance and was slurring his words.
At first, the family wondered whether he might have been drinking alcohol. However, a later autopsy revealed that Danny’s internal organs appeared to be in good condition.
Eventually, it was determined that Danny’s death had been caused by sudden cardiac arrest, which was triggered by a component found in the vapes he had been using.
The Autopsy's Results
Despite Danny being a long-time smoker, the autopsy showed that his lungs were not in terrible shape. Vaping hadn’t affected his breathing in a significant way, nor did it lead to what is commonly called ‘popcorn lung’.
But the medical examiner took a deeper look and reportedly asked Danny’s girlfriend about the type and strength of the vapes he used, as well as how often he was using them.
"His girlfriend said that he would have it on the nightstand next to him when he went to bed so if we woke up [in the night] he would vape." Cindi noted.
The medical examiner found that the amount of nicotine in Danny’s system was alarmingly high—three times the normal level. It was confirmed that he had suffered from nicotine poisoning.
Cindi shared: "The impairment that he was showing [before he died], were all signs of the nicotine being so high in the bloodstream that it started impairing his nervous system - he was slurring his speech, and he was having trouble with balance and coordination."
"Ultimately he went to bed and it caused a heart attack."
Now, after facing the pain of losing her son, Cindi is using her voice to raise awareness. She hopes her story can prevent another family from going through such a tragic loss.
Danny's Mom's Warning
Cindi believes that both Danny and their entire family were misled, thinking that switching to vaping would be a healthier choice. But that belief came with devastating consequences.
"He would have been so p***ed off [if he knew it would kill him] and I felt the same way," she said.
She pointed out that the nicotine in vapes is extremely concentrated, which, in her opinion, makes them “so much more addictive than even cigarettes are.” She also warned that introducing any unnatural substance into your body always carries risks.
Cindi added that she doesn’t think the dangers of vaping are made clear to people as quickly or thoroughly as they should be. She explained: "I also don't think that there's any kind of monitoring on all of the devices and the percentage of nicotine that they get in their system."
"There's no regulation on that at all so people are basically just getting addicted to this thing and it's toxic and they can just keep putting more and more and more in their system without any idea of what's happening as a result of it."
While there have been many reports highlighting how vaping can harm the lungs, Cindi hopes more light will be shed on the threat of nicotine poisoning. She’s also urging for better regulations around these products.
She concluded: "It's a false sense of security - people think they're not coughing, or they don't have pain in their chest but people don't know what's happening in other areas."
"[...] Something needs to be done about it. It can't keep going on like this."