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Loomis Man Seeks To "Break The Vape" After Waking Up From Medically Induced Coma Following Vaping-Related Illness

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Loomis man talked to CBS13 about the dangers of vaping after waking up from a medically induced coma.

"Am I going to make it? What's going to happen? Is this going to be my last breath?" Ricky D'ambrosio said of his experience.

D'ambrosio at just 21 years old said he had been vaping Juuls for the past year.

Now, he's inspired a campaign called "Break the Vape," where his friends are tossing their Juuls to show they're not letting it take their lives like it almost took his.

"I didn't think it was going to happen to me or any of my friends, but it did," he said.

D'ambrosio is sore, medicated and thirty pounds lighter after surviving off of a feeding tube at Kaiser hospital in Roseville.
And now he doesn't sleep at night.

"There's definitely that question of "If I go to sleep, am I going to wake up? If I go to sleep will there be a tomorrow?' " he said.

In early September, the 21-year-old D'ambrosio had been vomiting for weeks. He was in acute liver failure.

Doctors soon realized his illness was related to vaping — something he said he'd been doing since he was 16 years old.

Most recently, it was Juuls. Sometimes, it was THC. Everything was always legal

"We never bought black market stuff because we were always afraid because it's black market. We don't know what's in it so we might as well go get the real thing," D'ambrosio said. "Seeing people break their vapes is just inspiring day by day."

D'ambrosio said now that he survived, he's going to spread that message so this doesn't happen to anyone else.

"I really feel like I skated death this time by the grit of my teeth," he said.

It will be about two months until D'ambrosio will feel back to normal, but he said one thing is for sure: He won't be vaping again.

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