'Vaping put a hole in my teenage daughter's lung – we almost lost her'

A father has described the terrifying night his teenage daughter “turned blue” and nearly died after her lung collapsed and claims it was all down to vaping.

In the early hours of Saturday May 11, Mark Blight received a phone call and was told his daughter Kyla, 17, had collapsed and turned “blue” while sleeping at a friend's house.

Mark rushed her to hospital where she underwent a five-and-a-half hour surgery to remove part of her lung after nearly suffering a cardiac arrest.

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A small blister of air known as a lung bubble developed at the top of Kyla's lungs and it is believed her excessive vaping caused it to burst and her lungs to collapse.

Kyla spent another two weeks in the hospital before she was able to go home.

The student, who started vaping at just 15, thought the habit was “harmless” and that he could vape 4,000 puffs a week, which is the equivalent of 400 cigarettes.

However, Kyla now swears the ordeal “scared” her and stopped her from ever touching disposable vapes.

Full-time carer Mark took to Facebook to publicize his daughter's “life-threatening” experience, urging young people to “throw out the vapes” because “it's not worth it “.

Father-of-nine Mark, who lives in Egremont, Cumbria, said: “I've been to hell and back with Kyla over the last two weeks. I just put it down to vaping, they can't attribute it to something other than vaping that caused 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 pick her up. We took her to hospital.

“This time her lung collapsed because of the hole. They put a drain in her. She's a little girl who doesn't like needles. She screamed. She was about to go into 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 the disposable vapes that cause these bubbles to burst and punch a hole in your lungs. Apparently it's a big problem now. He has finished many 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 was life-threatening. 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.”

Mark says the ordeal began in November 2023 when Kyla was rushed to hospital after it was believed she was having a heart attack, but an X-ray revealed she had a hole in her lung after the formation of a bubble.

The student was taken to hospital again in February 2024, but was told she was cured, until May 11, when she was hospitalized for two weeks after the bubble burst and the collapse of his lung.

Mark revealed that although he caught his daughter using an e-cigarette, he didn't realize she started vaping when she was 15 and underestimated how much she did it.

The 61-year-old admitted he has been vaping for 13 years to help quit smoking, but is now urging young people to stop using 'disposable cigarettes' which 'just aren't worth it' after seeing the dangers first-hand.

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 Don't mind, it might later, after what happened to Kyla. It scared me.

“For children, there should absolutely be a ban. Especially the disposable ones. Those chemicals in them haven't 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 say to parents, watching your child do this, you're going to experience what I went through. It's just not worth it.

“For children, they don't understand until it happens to them. That's why I wrote on my Facebook. I'm going to have to make young children aware of this.”

Kyla admitted she started using disposable vapes at the age of 15 after seeing her friends at school doing it and began using it every day, consuming 4,000 puffs per week after thinking it was “harmless”.

However, the student revealed the experience “terrified” her and opened her eyes to the dangers of using e-cigarettes which she “won't touch again”.

Kyla said: “When I was 15 it started becoming a popular thing. All my friends were doing it. I just thought it would be harmless and I 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 them. I won't go near them. The situation really scared me.

“I was terrified. We went there thinking we'd only be there for a few hours, but we ended up staying there for two weeks having surgeries and stuff.”