Teen with collapsed lung thought vaping equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week was 'harmless' - Mirror Online

Nov 13, 2024

A teenager with a collapsed lung thought vaping the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week was "harmless".

Kyla Blight, 17, has warned other young people "it is not worth it" after bursting a hole in her lung, caused by vaping so frequently over a two-year period. She would get through an entire 4,000 puff vape a week — a device which should last three weeks and contains the nicotine equivalent of 400 cigarettes.

Kyla needed a five-hour operation to save her life after collapsing and turning "blue" while sleeping over at a a friend's house last month. Speaking today, the teenager said: "I don't think they should do it to themselves, it's not worth it really. It's fun and people think it's cool, but it's not worth it at all."

Medics found a small air blister, known as a pulmonary bleb, developed on the youngster's lung last year. It is thought her excessive vaping caused this to burst, leading to her lung collapsing. It burst in May this year.

After her surgery, Kyla, from Egremont, Cumbria, had to spend a two further weeks in hospital before she could return home. She now says the ordeal has frightened her off disposable vapes for the rest of her life.

Kyla appeared on Good Morning Britain on ITV today and told Susanna Reid and Ed Balls that, although she was under 18 and unable to legally buy vapes from a shop, she would purchase them from other people. She admitted to vaping "everywhere" she went and said she reached for her vape first thing every morning.

Her dad, Mark Blight, 61, joined her on the programme, on which he urged young people to throw away their vapes. The full-time carer said: "I've been to hell and back with Kyla over the last couple of weeks. I just put it down to vaping, they can't put it down to anything else but vaping that's caused this.

"She was at a friend's house and I got a phone call at 4am that she had collapsed and gone blue. I went round for her. We took her down to the hospital. Her lung collapsed this time due to the hole. They put a drain in her. She's a little girl who doesn't like needles. She screamed. She was close to having a cardiac arrest."

Mr Blight admitted he vaped for almost 13 years because it helped him quit smoking. The previous heavy smoker has now quit vaping as well after his daughter's health scare. Dr Hilary Jones told GMB viewers: "For Mark who was a previous smoker, he was better off vaping. For Kyla it's the last thing she needed, kids who don't smoke shouldn't vape. They do contain toxins, many of which have been identified some of which are pretty nasty.

"Nicotine is addictive. No they don't give you carbon monoxide and they don't give you tar, but they give you lots of other things.. 4,000 puffs a week is a lot of liquid going into the lungs and we just don't know yet what the long term risks are."