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Teen Partially Blinded After Vape Pen Explodes In His Face At Brooklyn Mall
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 15, 2016
Modified Mar 25, 2018
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Apr 15, 2016
Modified Mar 25, 2018
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A 14-year-old boy was burned and blinded in his left eye after a vape pen exploded in his face at a kiosk at the Kings Plaza mall.
Leor Domatov, who lives in Mill Basin, was at the mall on April 5th with his friends when he visited the Plaza Vapes kiosk. Though the law requires a person to be 21 to buy or handle vapes, the clerk at the kiosk allowed Domatov and his friends to handle the products. While Domatov held one of the vapes, the clerk apparently plugged the device into the wrong battery, causing it to explode. "The guy was showing me different products of the vaporizers. He connected one of the vaporizers to the battery at the store,” Domatov told CBS 2. “When he gave it to me to hold, it exploded in my hands and my face.”
Domatov didn't know what was happening until he saw blood. “I see like red stuff on the floor, and I’m like ‘oh my god, is this blood?’ So I start crying, why does it hurt me in my hands?” he told the station. He spent five days at a local hospital, where he was treated for cuts to his eyes, chemical burns, and injuries to his hands. He currently cannot see out of his left eye. "In my left eye, I have a cut through the cornea and I can’t see out of it, and on my right eye, the cornea was cut halfway through and I can see a little bit," he told the Daily News.
The kiosk is being investigated by the city's Department of Consumer Affairs. "It is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes to customers under 21 in New York City, and we will be visiting this retailer to ensure they follow the law," a spokesperson for the department said in a statement.
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Rebecca Fishbein
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