this is "nightline." tonight, hit and risk, the popular trend among teens, potentially making them sick. one former user once hooked on vaping and ending up in a medically induced coma. >> extremely terrified for my life. >> now warning others of the addiction that he says nearly killed him. plus, meet the queen of slime. from waitress to youtube sensation. >> the more you knead it, the heavier an gets. >> she uses her love of mixing slime. >> i never a million years thought that slime would be my

career. but first, the "nightline" five. number

good evening. thank you for joining as kids grab.

>> baooks and backpacks, they might be grabbing something else. h >> it's a distressing sight -- 17 year old trystan zohfeld fighting for his life in a hospital bed. >> i woke up just throwing up everywhere, and my heart was beating out of my chest going 100 miles an hour. >> coughing, wheezing,eventually his lungs failing, doctors hooking him up to a ventilator and placing him in a medically induced coma, his parents fearing for the worst. >> day they intubated him was the worst day of my life. everyday just kept getting worse, it's a very scary thing. we really had no idea if he is going to make it through or not. >> i was terrified for my life. >> hospitalized for 18 days last month, trystan lost 15 lbs, and says he had to relearn to walk. >> we don't see previously healthy 17-year-olds get that sick that quick. >> i woke up from the coma and i knew what i wanted to do. >> now he has a message to share

about vaping. he says the habit he picked up in 8th grade is what almost killed him. >> this is what can really happen, and it's a big deal. >> this child almost died from -- this this is not a child got a little sick and got well. >> it's a scary thought for anybody. they didn't even know how to treat me, and that's the scary thing we don't really know the long term effects or even the short term effects of vaping. >> it's the modern take on smoking behind the bleachers. >> there's a parenting alert about vaping. >> vaping exploded in the last few years among teens. 38% of twelfth graders reporting they have tried vaping in 2018, up from 28% in 2017. but both the fda and the surgeon general have warned that e-cigarette use has become an "epidemic" among adolescents. in april, the fda began

investigating dozens of reports of seizures potentially related to vaping. and this week illinois health officials warned that e-cigarettes "can be dangerous" after an adult who had been vaping died from severe respiratory illness. >> we've had the twenty two cases in illinois, and then all of those cases they all reportee of those 22 cases resulted in a death. >> the c-d-c is also investigating nearly 200 cases of severe pulmonary illness in an effort to determine if the use of e-cigarettes is to blame. >> health officials suspect an association between vaping and lung problems. however a direct causation hasn't been proven at this time. >> vaping has been assumed to be a safer practice than say smoking cigarettes. at this point we are unclear whether this injury we are

seeing is related to the device itself, whether it is related to a substance that these teens are vaping, or one of the agents oils or solvents with it. >> among those who have been hospitalized is 20- year old alexander mitchell from utah. >> i would hit my vape easily 40 times in an hour. i was a pretty heavy vaper. he insists that it was vaping that led to an extended hospital stay. >> i stopped smoking cigarettes is because vaping is supposed to be safer, and what i found out that it almost killed me. >> earlier this summer, the once avid hiker woke up with what he thought was the flu. but very quickly his health took a devastating turn, hospitalized,alexander was kept alive by a team of doctors and advanced support machines. >> it was taking my blood from my body, removing the carbon dioxide oxygen, eating it, and then putting it back into my body. the doctors said that at any given moment i had a third of my blood out of my body. >> alexander's doctors believe

his acute respiratory distress syndrome may have been caused by his vaping habit. >> now alexander, who left the hospital on july 7, has diminished lung capacity and is experiencing short term memory issues. >> i don't have the stamina that i used to. i don't have the strength that i used to. they're hopeful i'll recover. >> you know common sense suggests that the chemical ingredients contained in a traditional e cig are not healthy for anyone, let alone a teenager, but we don't have hard scientific proof that any of the case reports that we've heard recently in the media can be conclusively linked in terms of a precipitating event by an e cig use. but we have a lot of anecdotal reports. we have a lot of clinical reports that are not good. >> the e-cigarette industry has surged in popularity, with juul leading the pack. it's revenue is projected to exceed $3.4 billion this year, nearly triple its revenue from last year. a juul heats up liquid nicotine that users inhale. the company claims it was developed for adult smokers looking for a safer alternative

to cigarettes. it's even become a verb. juuling. >> i've seen kids juul in class. >> kids are, going to bathroom, smoking in stalls. >> next thing you know, you're hooked and you can't stop. >> with flavors like mint and fruit, and packaging that looks more like that of a sleek tech gadget than a tobacco product, juuls have become a must have accessory among kids as young as 12. but the potential dangers are real. just one of those pods containing roughly the same amount of nicotine as a pack of cigarettes. some kids say they smoke up to a pod a day. >> you can't assume that it's safe. you have to balance risk >> kevin vernes apologized to

parents of addicted teens. >> i tell them that i'm sorry that their child is using the product. it's not intended for them. >> in a statement to abc news, the company said they are monitoring reports of hospitalization, adding, we stopped the sale of non-tobacco and non-menthol flavored juul pods to our traditional retail store partners last year, enhanced our online, strengthened our retailer comply anse and shut down our facebook and instagram accounts. we have never marketed to youth and we never will. >> parents up in arms because some kids have become addicted to nicotine before they've graduated from middle school. >> when teenagers are exposed to an addictive substance, it absolutely has the potential for

having long-term effects. the verdict is not in yet, but to be clear, the american academy of pediatrics, the cdc, the fda, absolutely against the use of e-cigs in a young population. >> san francisco even banned the sale of e cigarette degrices vi the city. >> they can taste like you're smoking candy, and their appearance is such that it is very easy to hide in plain sight. so i think when you take into account the marketing, the design, the technology, it's not difficult to see why this has been appealing to teenagers. >> back in utah, alexander mitchell is working on rebuilding his strength so he can return to what he loves most, hiking. >> the doctors told me my lungs

are diminished by 25%. to the people who are vaping under age, knock it off. don't do that to your parents. as for people who are of legal smoking age, i pevape. just know the risks. it almost killed me. >> for tristan and his doctors, they are hoping his experience can serve as a cautionary tale for other young people. >> you're inhaling chemicals. you're inhaling chemicals that i can't pronounce. and if you can't pronounce them, they shouldn't be in your lungs. >> i really wish i had the knowledge i do now. and i wish a lot of teens have the knowledge that i do now. i just want to show people, you know, this is what could happen, and tell my story and i have the scars from the day of the biopsies and the surgeries and tubes in knee. they're going to be there forever. they're not safe as you think. >> and coming up. meet the woman who's made slime ready for prime time.

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she started with a tube of goo, a youtube channel and a dream. karina garcia made a fortune and gained a fan base that kids can't get enough o s tou et 25-year-old karina gar gar aka, the queen of slime. >> the more you knead it, the heavier and thicker it gets. >> it's a huge part of my life. >> this is why you don't make slime at 3:00 a.m.e

making slime. >> with over 9 million subscribers on youtube, she shows unfans how to make all types of slime with different textures and scents, even doing slime challenges. >> this is going to be the biggest slime challenge i've done by far. >> reporter: from contact solution to shaving cream and glue, and i'm talking a ton of glue. >> i got to make it with my hands now. >> this one is really activated. >> reporter: kids across the country are inspired by karina. >> as you see our slime, we made much more lotion with it. >> reporter: raiding their parents' medicine cabinets to make the messiest goop around. n of ytu turning their channels into businesses, creating an empire out of slime. >> i feel like i'm really one of those people on one of those shows obsessed with somethi understand. >> reporter: how much of a craze

is slime? >> so huge. we're seeing slime incorporated in toys. 2019 is the year of slime. >> reporter: talk to me about the celebrity of karina garcia. >> probably more recognizable to a kid than a famous actress walking down the street. they want to emlate her. >> reporter: but karina's success is very new. three years ago she was a l millennial, trying to figure out her life. >> i was working on the weekends as a waitress. i didn't know what to do. >> reporter: she started posting makeup videos and crafting tutorials. >> i found a simple recipe on pinterest, and it was just going to be another how-to video, another diy on my channel. and it actually did really too. people loved it, because there wasn't a lot of slime videos li.

>> reporter: but before she became synonymous with slime, it >> three years ago we were living in a two-bedroom mobile home. we really struggled growing up, and now, what the heck is our life, it's so crazy. i never in a million years thought slime would be my career. >> reporter: now karina makes six figures and makes slime from her los angeles mansion. >> this is the room that holds all the slime supplies. we have a bunch of beads. these all add-ins. these are scents, cake batter. they all smell so good. i'm going to get some glue over here. >> reporter: she use as 30-qua to make big batches of that famous slime. >> just keep adding a little bit at a patience and then you'll see it come to life. so this is the one that was made.

this thing holds about 12 gallons, but there's a lot of slime in here. this is a few thousand dollars in this, in this container. it's crazy. >> reporter: and karina is constantly coming up with newve york city for the annual toy fair. we're where buyers and sellers from around the world come together to find out what the hottest toys are for this coming year. nearly 500,000 square feet of a dream playground just for grownups to talk business, but i'm feeling like a kid. today karina's showing off her latest sticky, stretchy and scented slimes her cy. have the. pea n peanut butter. >> reporter: you literally take off -- yeah, there it is. you had always dreamed of

creating toys. >> yeah, from the moment i started youtube. i always thought it would be the coolest thing ever to have some kind of product on a al around the toy industry. >> reporter: a mogul in the making, karina said she couldn't have made it this far without the power of social media. what does it say about the place that youtube is in and the culture that youtubers have that someone who has started their channel here now has a full-fledged booth at a place like toy fair? >> i think basically just says that you really can do anything. when i started for fun, i never really thought i could make an actual career out of it, but i mean, i've proved myself wrong. i just hope that my brand keeps expanding. i want to be a mega brand someday. i want to be martha stewart so bad. >> reporter: what is separating her? >> she has a really engaged audience and great content that was resonating with kids. >> reporter: so we joined karina as she surprised a

second grade slimers. she she's throwing she's kids thousand make their own slime. >> it's the easiest thing ever, i promise. it's sticky. it's still sticky, right? >> reporter: so as much as four years ago, you were lost. you didn't have this platform. >> kind of cra cra i love it so much. my audience is kids. and they're so pure and loving. i wouldn't trade them for anything. >> reporter: sticky and stained. anything. >> reporter: sticky and stained. it's time to take a ss sit ou doing a little growing of their own. ohhh. ahhgh. so imagine how we cheered when we found tide pods sport. finally something more powerful than the funk.

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and smiles for the soul. here's abc's david muir. >> reporter: coleman jones is vice president of howdy homemade ice cream in dallas. there are about a dozen employees who run the show here, from 16 to 31, each of them with special needs. and until this ice cream shop, ann marie kerrigan had trouble finding a job.

>> it makes me feel like there's not a place for me in this world. >> reporter: there is now, because tom landis knew exactly the kind of workers he was looking for. >> it just jumped out that hey, this is what the restaurant industry needs. >> reporter: they make 34 different flavors of ice cream. and they make their customers smile. the workers grateful. >> i'm really appreciate the freedom of the expressing myself. >> especially just waking up to ice cream is really a blessing come true. >> i think i've taught them how to work, and they've taught me how to live. >> reporter: and this from ann marie. >> never take no for an answer. grab what you are passionate about and make it happen. >> reporter: which is exactly what tom did for his workers. and in turn what his workers are now doing for that community.

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