people.com: Michigan Teen Who Nearly Died From Vaping Creates Foundation To Warn Other Kids of Dangers

2/16/2020

By Andrea Billips 

February 12, 2020 12:52 PM
 
FIGHT4WELLNESS

Last summer, Daniel Ament was a typical teen looking forward to his junior year at Grosse Pointe North High School near Detroit. The 16-year-old was an avid sailor and a varsity athlete who ran cross country. But, like many of his peers, he also vaped nicotine and marijuana —  a habit that eventually landed him in the emergency room.

On Sept. 5 he was admitted to St. John Hospital in Detroit after suffering from symptoms resembling pneumonia. His condition deteriorated and he spent 29 days on life support. When he awoke weeks later, he was shocked to learn he had received a double-lung transplant. The Oct. 15 procedure was described by transplant doctors at the Henry Ford Health System as “the first double lung transplant in the world for a patient whose lungs were irreparably damaged from vaping.”

Today, Ament  is determined to use his powerful survival story to help others understand the dangers of vaping. He’s started a non-profit foundation, Fight4Wellness and plans to continue speaking to youth and creating public service announcements to remind young people that vaping is more than a recreational pursuit — it can be deadly.

“For me, most of the stuff I heard was that it was completely safe, that it was helping people quit cigarettes,” Ament, now 17, tells PEOPLE. “I never thought it would be any health risk that serious.”

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