---
title: "Navy Vet Sues Over E-Cig That Blew This Hole In His Leg (Graphic)"
date: "2017-04-19"
modified: "2017-04-19"
authors:
  - name: "Adam Weinstein"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/adamweinstein.md"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-veteran-vaping-leg-burns/"
categories:
  - "News"
---

# Navy Vet Sues Over E-Cig That Blew This Hole In His Leg (Graphic)

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/19039888-1.png>)

Bin Laden? No biggie. Syrian airfields? *Please.*

Vaping? Sailor, take warning.

On the heels of the Navy’s blanket ban on vaping while shipboard, a Dallas-based nine-year Navy veteran is suing the makers of an e-cigarette that he says blasted a hole in his leg, a grievous and graphic injury for which there are no medals or parades. Yes, we have pictures. No, they’re not pleasant!

Related: Navy Bans E-Cigarettes As Dreams Of Vaping At Sea Go Up In Smoke »

CBS-DFW’s Joel Thomas [reports](<https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/04/17/north-texan-sues-e-cigarette-battery-maker-for-explosion-in-pocket/>):

*“I had to go to the store, I ran upstairs to go get a couple of things, I stepped into the bathroom and it blew up,” Matthew Bonestele said.*

*Bonestele said the spare e-cigarette battery he had in his pocket began shooting fire into his thigh.*

*“I felt pain and I felt the flames,” he said. “I smelled the smoke and I smelled the burning. So I spent about the next 20 seconds ripping off my pants and patting down my legs to put the flames out.”*

"Mr. Bonestele suffered an injury that he could never have imagined in civilian life," his attorney said in [a statement](<https://www.kcentv.com/news/local/former-navy-seal-sues-after-e-cigarette-explosion-tore-hole-in-thigh/431879436>). "The reality is that these batteries are small sticks of dynamite and the e-cigarette industry needs to make wholesale changes to ensure the safety of all those who use these batteries."

Curious what an e-cig explosion in your pants looks like? Not anymore, you aren’t:

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/image-placeholder-title-806.jpg>)

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/03/image-placeholder-title-807.jpg>)

Bonestele, 56, needed a walker to leave the hospital and misses participating in kid’s charity events with his motorcycle club while he recovers.

“I can’t get out and do a lot of stuff with the kids because where the where the injury is is right about the height of a 4-year-old. Boom! Right there. So it’s a little bit painful,” he told CBS-DFW. “I’ve had to pull myself back from doing a lot of that stuff. Also it’s harder to ride when you have a burned leg.”

Fair winds and following seas to Bonestele as his recovery continues. All of a sudden, [a log of Copenhagen](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb-lnWDyQ78>) seems like the lesser of evils.