Hospitals raise alarm against e-cigarettes following synthetic drug poisoning

Vietnam National Children's Hospital has recently saved a boy who was hospitalized after he mistakenly drank the yellow substance of an e-cigarette.

Doctors initially assumed he had been poisoned by nicotine, the main element in e-cigarettes. However, they later discovered that the boy's symptoms of seizure, dilated pupils, and slow pulse were different from what one normally suffers from nicotine poisoning.

After conducting a blood test, the doctors concluded that the boy had consumed a type of synthetic drug called ADB-BUTINACA, according to Dr. Tran Dang Xoay, head of the hospital's Department of Internal Medicine.

The boy suffered severe neurological damage to the point of coma and respiratory failure.

After two days of intensive treatment, he regained consciousness and continued to be monitored for long-term complications, said Xoay.

The doctor said this is the second case in recent weeks that the hospital has treated a child who had been poisoned after accidentally drinking the synthetic drugs in an e-cigarette.

According to the Poison Control Center at Hanoi's Bach Mai Hospital, cases of patients getting poisoned by synthetic drugs in e-cigarettes is happening quite frequently.

In July, a 20-year-old girl was rushed to the hospital in a deep coma, suffering heart failure and brain and liver damage after vaping.

The Ministry of Health in November proposed a ban on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.

At least 32 countries and territories have prohibited vaping, including five in Southeast Asia, Thailand, Singapore, Laos, Brunei and Cambodia.