'It's going to attack your lungs': Illinois teen hospitalized for vaping has message for his peers

Adam Hergenreder started vaping about two years ago at age 16. The mint and mango flavors were his favorites.

Now Hergenreder, of Gurnee, Ill., is hospitalized and unable to breathe without a steady flow of oxygen through tubes affixed to his nostrils. Doctors have told the 18-year-old that images of his lungs from a chest X-ray look like those of a man in his 70s. His lungs may never be the same again, and vaping is likely to blame.

Hergenreder is one of at least 27 patients with a history of vaping who have