HGP Nightly News – A five-month vaping habit that began during weekend parties has ended with a 39-year-old construction worker struggling to breathe, unable to return to his job and warning others from his hospital bed: “Don’t touch it.”
Devendra Jagmohan, of Land of Canaan, shared his experience in a short video released by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Jagmohan said he had never smoked cigarettes but began vaping while visiting clubs on weekends because it made him “feel good.”
Within months, he was using an entire disposable vape every three or four days.
“I used to vape a lot,” he admitted.
Jagmohan was hospitalised after an accident, but said medical examinations subsequently revealed that his lungs were swollen and that an infection had affected other parts of his body.
He believes his heavy vaping contributed to his breathing problems and deteriorating health.
The hospital’s video did not include his complete medical records, diagnosis or comments from his treating doctors establishing vaping as the sole cause of his condition. Lung inflammation and systemic infections can have several possible causes, which must be assessed clinically.
Jagmohan’s experience has nevertheless transformed his life.
Before being hospitalised, he worked in construction during the week and went clubbing on weekends.
He now says he cannot be around cigarette smoke, vaping aerosols or cement dust, preventing him from immediately returning to construction.
“It won’t be like how it used to be, like 100 per cent before,” he said. “It will take time. You can’t harass yourself.”
Facing a lengthy recovery and uncertainty about his livelihood, Jagmohan urged people, particularly non-smokers considering vaping recreationally, not to start.
“I advise them not to use any type of vape or cigarette or anything because it could kill you,” he said.
“Being in here, I realise it. I see it with my own two eyes. I feel it.”
His message was blunt: “Don’t try it at all. Just watch it and pass it. Don’t touch it.”
GPHC said Jagmohan chose to share his story to encourage others to consider the potential consequences of vaping. The hospital described his recovery as a long journey that had reshaped his future and given him a mission to warn others.
Medical authorities caution that e-cigarettes do not produce harmless water vapour. They create an aerosol that may contain nicotine, cancer-causing chemicals, heavy metals and particles capable of travelling deep into the lungs. Most e-cigarettes contain highly addictive nicotine, although scientists are still studying their full short- and long-term effects. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says this does not make vaping safe.
Vaping-associated lung injury can involve coughing, chest pain, shortness of breath and other respiratory or systemic symptoms. The condition can be difficult to diagnose because doctors must also investigate infections and other possible causes. CDC clinical guidance notes that multiple substances and products have been implicated, particularly during the 2019 EVALI outbreak.
A Mayo Clinic-led review examined lung biopsies from 17 patients who had vaped and were suspected of having vaping-associated lung injury. All showed acute lung injury, including pneumonitis, and two died. Most had used marijuana or cannabis oils, meaning the findings should not be interpreted as proof that every vaping product produces the same risk. Mayo Clinic said the injuries appeared consistent with direct toxicity or tissue damage from harmful chemical fumes.
For Jagmohan, however, the warning is no longer abstract. What began as a weekend habit has left him confronting a long recovery, a disrupted career and a life he says may never return fully to what it was.
