Teenage girl's lung collapses after vaping the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week

A teenager who thought vapes were harmless was rushed to hospital with a collapsed lung after unknowingly smoking the equivalent of 400 cigarettes in just one week.

Kyla Blight, 17, collapsed and turned 'blue' while sleeping at a friend's house and was rushed into a five-and-a-half hour surgery to remove part of her lung after her heart almost failed. stopped beating.

Her “terrified” father Mark Blight is now urging parents to be aware of the deadly dangers of vaping. In Kyla's case, a small blister of air known as a lung bubble developed in her lung. It is believed the blister burst due to excessive vaping, which caused his lung to collapse.

Kyla was just 15 when she started vaping, and she would often vape 4,000 puffs a week, the nicotine equivalent of 400 cigarettes. On Facebook, his father Mark urged young people to throw away their vapes because “it’s not worth it”. The father-of-nine from Egremont, Cumbria, said: “I have been to hell and back with Kyla over the last two weeks. I just blamed this on vaping, they can't attribute it to anything other than vaping causing this.

“She was at a friend's house and I got a phone call at 4am saying she had collapsed and turned blue. I went to get her. We took her to the hospital. His lung collapsed this time because of the hole. They put a drain on him. She's a little girl who doesn't like needles. She screamed. She was on the verge of cardiac arrest.

“They rushed us to Newcastle and she had surgery on Tuesday. It was a five and a half hour operation. She had a seizure on the operating table. I was talking to the surgeon and he was talking about these bubbles that can form on the lungs. They think it's disposable vapes that burst those bubbles and put a hole in your lungs.

“Apparently it's a big deal now.” He did a lot of operations like this. It was terrifying for me. I cried like a baby. It was horrible to watch. I was with her the whole time. It really threatened her life because she was so close to cardiac arrest that Friday. They said she turned blue. They thought she was gone.

Full-time carer Mark says Kyla's health problems began in November 2023, when she was rushed to hospital after thinking she was having a heart attack. An X-ray later revealed the teenager had a hole in her lung, which had developed from a lung bubble. She returned to the hospital in February 2024 and was told she was cured. But on May 11, the bubble burst and saw his lung collapse.

Mark admitted he didn't realize Kyla started vaping when she was 15 and was unaware of the extent of her smoking habits. The 61-year-old said he himself had vaped for 13 years to quit smoking, but had no problems.

He is now warning against using disposable vapes after seeing the impacts it had on Kyla's health. Mark said: “People underestimate how dangerous they can be. I used them to quit smoking 13 years ago and it never bothered me at all. Even if you think it doesn't bother you, it might later, after what happened to Kyla. It scared me.

“For children, there should absolutely be a ban, especially disposable ones. The chemicals they contain have not been tested properly. Until the government does testing, people will do it. The doctor said he was seeing a lot more now than before. He said there were a lot of young people with holes in their lungs.

“I would tell parents that by watching their child do this, they are going to experience what I experienced. It's just not worth it. Children don't understand until it happens to them. That's why I wrote on my Facebook. I will have to make young children aware of this. »

Kyla says the experience left her “terrified” and put her off vaping in the future after being bedridden in hospital for weeks. Speaking about her early experiences with vaping, she said: “When I was 15 it started becoming a popular thing. All my friends did it. I just thought it would be harmless and everything would be fine.

“Every day I used all 4,000 puffs and went through them in about a week. Honestly, I thought they were harmless and wouldn't do anything to anyone, even though I had seen so much about it.

“I just feel like everyone has the same point of view. But now I won't touch it anymore. I wouldn't go near them. The situation really scared me. I was terrified. We went there thinking we would only be there for a few hours, but we ended up staying there for two weeks having surgeries and stuff.