A 14-year-old boy has been left partially blinded after a vape pen suddenly exploded in his face. Leor Domatov was at the Kings Plaza Shopping Center in Brooklyn with friends when the incident took place, according toCBS New York. After spending five days recovering in a nearby hospital, the teen still has no vision in his left eye.
"The guy was showing me different products of the vaporizers," Domatov recalled. "He connected one of the vaporizers to the battery at the store. When he gave it to me to hold, it exploded in my hands and my face." Domatov says he initially had no idea what happened, simply noticing the "red stuff" on the floor. "My left eye, I can't see anything right now because I got a cut through my cornea," Domatov said. "In my right eye, I have a little bit of vision."
The teen's family has now hired attorney Mark Freund, who plains to sue both the mall and the kiosk owner. "Leor was being marketed at the entrance of the mall, a mall that caters to children," Freund said. Though the teen and his friends were reportedly at the mall without adult supervision, it is still quite illegal to sell such products to minors.
Though the employee who allowed the teen to test out the device hasn't been identified, PIX 11reports it was only their second day on the job. A sign at the kiosk now reads "Must be 21 to purchase any product," though Freund and Domatov insist the sign wasn’t posted until after the accident.
