The case in summary Kenneth Andersen suffered second-degree burns on 70 percent of his leg after his e-cigarette exploded in his trouser pocket while he was working. Andersen tried to remove the e-cigarette from his pocket, but it had melted into his trousers. He was sent to the emergency room at Stavanger University Hospital. Andersen has since received a skin transplant from his right thigh to his left thigh. Andersen bought the e-cigarette from KRS vapor in Sandnes, which has stated that they take the matter very seriously and will submit the product for investigation. Despite the incident, Andersen has no plans to stop using e-cigarettes. It starts as a normal day at work for Kenneth Andersen in Stavanger. He works at a car manufacturing factory, and on Thursday last week was fully occupied with screwing and assembling a car. Andersen bends down to pick up something on the floor. As always, he has an e-cigarette in his trouser pocket. Andersen will probably be marked for life after the e-cigarette explosion. He also has to wait quite a while before he is allowed to go to work again. Photo: Privat Flames from pocket While squatting, he sees flames licking up and out of his trouser pocket. The e-cigarette in the left trouser pocket has caught fire and exploded. He splashes and realizes that it is coming from the e-cigarette. He tries to pull it out of his pocket, but it has melted into his trousers. – I then try to tear off my trousers. It takes around 20 seconds, but then the inside of the trousers would have burned first. As soon as I felt the heat, it was full fire everywhere, says Andersen. This is what the e-cigarette looked like after it had burned out. Kenneth assures that it was unscrewed when it was in his pocket. All parts were original and the batteries have not been replaced. Photo: Privat According to WebMD, mentioned in NHI, the shape and construction of electronic cigarettes means that they can behave like “flaming rockets when a battery fails”. Don’t go to the hospital He doesn’t understand anything. In the middle of the working day, he therefore stands among his colleagues in the boxer. It stings, but he doesn’t go to the hospital. He tries to clean the wounds as best as possible himself. – I go to the emergency room where they clean the wounds once more and pick away dead skin from the wound, he says. Here he says that the pain is intense. The e-cigarette Kenneth used was of the Vaporesso Gen 200 kit type. Photo: Screenshot He is sent home from the emergency room and is encouraged to contact a doctor the following day. Andersen wakes up the next day without any particular pain. He gets an appointment with the doctor in the middle of the day and goes to work, as he would otherwise do on a normal day. – I think everything is fine, because I don’t know anything. At the doctor’s, they send me straight to the emergency room at Stavanger University Hospital. Second-degree burn on the leg At the emergency department, it is established that he has received second-degree burns on 70 percent of his left foot. The absence of pain is due to nerve damage due to the flames. And he has been in the hospital ever since, and will be there for the rest of this week. Andersen has received a skin transplant from his right thigh to his left thigh. Photo: Privat Takes the matter seriously Andersen bought the e-cigarette from KRS steam in Sandnes. Managing director of Kristiansand Damputstryr AS, Ruth-Elin Bergum, writes that she has only come across one similar case in the past. – This is a very sad event, especially for the customer, but also for us. This is a matter we take very seriously and we will submit the product for examination as soon as the customer returns it to us. She adds that it should be just as safe to have e-cigarettes in your pocket as a mobile phone or other things with a battery. – But it is very important that no products containing batteries should be exposed to falls, blows or thumps, Bergum points out. Will not stop using e-cigarettes When news meets Andersen, he is lying in a hospital bed with bandaged legs. – I don’t want to look like that on my legs. There are going to be big scars. But I have to live it, and it annoys me. Because it could have been avoided, says Andersen in the hospital bed. Today, Kenneth Andersen is admitted to Stavanger University Hospital after the dramatic incident. Photo: Elise Pedersen / news His legs are bandaged. In the jacket pocket of the chair next to the bed is a new e-cigarette that he got from Krs. steam. He has no plans to stop using e-cigarettes. – I’m not going to stop, but I probably won’t keep it in my trouser pocket anymore, he says. The e-cigarette that exploded had only original parts, and the batteries have not been replaced, according to Andersen. news has repeatedly tried to get in touch with the company behind Andersen’s e-cigarette. “Vaporesso”, which has its head office in China, has not responded to e-mail or telephone.
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Hospitalized with second degree burns after explosion – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
