A Utah teenager's jaw was completely shattered when his vape pen exploded, with doctors comparing his injuries to a high-speed car crash.
The boy's injuries were detailed in an article published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine. Austin, a 17-year-old, arrived in hospital with a swollen jaw and lacerations in his mouth.
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One doctor compared the injuries to a gunshot wound.
"It takes a serious amount of force to break your jaw and to break it in the way that he did," author Katie Russell, of the Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, told The Washington Post.
Pen manufacturer VGOD declined requests for comment.
Austin's mum, Kailani Burton, told The Post vaping was supposed to make her son's life better.
"I could see blood in his mouth and a hole in his chin. I was just scared for him."
Austin underwent two surgeries and is now "doing really good", she told the paper.
Newshub.
