CONDENSER SAFETY

[Slow42]

Looking to purchase a multi purpose condenser for a 12 gallon SS keg. I am new to this hobby and have a condenser question. My first contact with distilling was with a friend at a persons home who was distilling. From my reading here I believe it was a VM shotgun condenser. The condenser was copper and had about 8 smaller copper tubes within a larger one. Looked to be about 3 inches. The top of the condenser, all the small copper pipes, were exposed to the air. I could feel heat coming from the tubes as the boiler was being heated. Well after a while I became light head and a bit nauseous. I left but it took me 1/2 a day to recover. This obviously wasn’t a safe way to do things. From reading here, please correct me if I’m not understanding this correctly, when the boiler is heated the vapors go up the condenser and is cooled by water. If done correctly the vapors should remain within the system. In this case they weren’t. Is this setup correct and was it user error that caused the problem or design? Any input would be appreciated.