A “terrified” dad is warning parents about the deadly dangers of vaping after his teenage daughter blew a hole in her lung while smoking the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week.
Mark Blight took Kyla Blight to the hospital during the early hours of May 11 after receiving a phone call informing him that she had passed out and turned “blue” while sleeping at a friend’s house.
After her heart almost stopped beating, the 17-year-old underwent surgery for five and a half hours to remove part of her lung.
A small air blister known as a pulmonary blister had developed at the top of Kyla’s lungs and it is believed that her excessive vaping caused it to burst and caused her lung to collapse.
The student, who started vaping when he was just 15, believed the habit was “harmless” and could vape 4,000 puffs a week, which is the nicotine equivalent of 400 cigarettes.
Kyla Blight suffered a collapsed lung after vaping the equivalent of 400 cigarettes
An air blister known as a pulmonary blister developed in Kyla’s lung which then burst and caused the lung to collapse.
Kyla has vowed to never touch vapes again after her life-threatening ordeal.
Kyla’s father Mark warns parents about the dangers of disposable vapes after watching his teenage daughter nearly die from the side effects.
After her surgery, Kyla had to spend two more weeks in the hospital before she could return home.
She now says the ordeal has put her off disposable vapes for the rest of her life.
Mark, a full-time carer, took to Facebook to raise awareness about his daughter’s life-threatening experience, urging young people to throw away their e-cigarettes 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 for the last few weeks. “I just put it down to vaping, they can’t put it down to anything other than vaping that caused this. .
“I was at a friend’s house and I received a phone call at 4 in the morning informing me that she had fainted and turned blue. I went to look for her. We took her to the hospital.
‘His lung collapsed this time because of the hole. They put a drain on him. She is a girl who doesn’t like needles. She screamed. She almost went into cardiac arrest.
Kyla, 17, believed vaporizers were harmless when she started using them at age 15.
Kyla said disposable vapes became popular among her friends at school and “everyone” thought they were safe.
Kyla ended up smoking the nicotine equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week.
“We were rushed to Newcastle and had surgery on Tuesday. It was a five and a half hour operation. He had had a seizure on the operating table.
‘I was talking to the surgeon and he told me about these blisters that can form in the lungs. They believe that it is the disposable vaporizers that burst these blisters and puncture the lungs.
‘Apparently it’s a big thing now. He has done many operations like this.
‘It was terrifying for me. I cried like a baby. It was horrible to see. I’ve been with her all the time.
‘It really threatened his life because he came very close to going into 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 he believed she was having a heart attack, but an x-ray revealed she had a hole in her lung after it had formed. a blister
The student was taken to the hospital again in February 2024, but was told she was cured, until May 11, when she was hospitalized for two weeks after the blister burst and caused her lung to collapse.
Mark revealed that although he once caught his daughter using an e-cigarette, he hadn’t realized she had started vaping at age 15 and underestimated the extent to which she was doing so.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
The 61-year-old admitted he has vaped for 13 years to help quit smoking. However, he is now urging young people to stop using disposable vapes 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 has never bothered me at all. Even if you think it doesn’t bother you, it might bother you later, after what happened to Kyla. She scared me.
‘For children there should definitely be a ban, especially disposable ones. These chemicals they contain have not been adequately tested. Until the government tests it, people will do it.
“The doctor said he sees a lot more now than before. He said there are many young people with holes in their lungs.
Mark Blight Says Teens Underestimate Dangers of Disposable Vapes
‘I would tell parents that by seeing their children do this, they are going to go through what I went through. Not worth it.
‘Children don’t understand until it happens to them. That’s why I wrote on my Facebook. “I’m going to have to educate the little kids about this.”
Kyla admitted she started using disposable vapes at age 15 after seeing her friends at school doing it and began using them every day, reaching 4,000 puffs a week after thinking it was “harmless.”
However, the student revealed that the experience had “terrified” her and opened her eyes to the dangers of using e-cigarettes that she now “doesn’t want to touch.”
Kyla said: ‘When I was 15 it started to become popular. All my friends were doing it. I just thought it would be harmless and okay.
‘Every day I used the 4,000 puffs and finished them in about a week.
‘I honestly thought they were harmless and wouldn’t do anything to anyone, even though I had seen so many things about it. I feel like everyone has the same opinion.
But now I won’t touch them. I wouldn’t go near them. The situation has really scared me a lot.
‘I was terrified. We went in there thinking we were only going to be there for a few hours, but we ended up there for two weeks with surgeries and everything.’
Everything you need to know about electronic cigarettes
How much nicotine is in an electronic cigarette?
There are many different brands of e-cigarettes that contain different levels of nicotine.
The legal amount of nicotine in an e-liquid capacity in the UK is 20 mg/ml, which is equivalent to between 600 and 800 puffs.
The Elf Bar 600, one of Britain’s most popular vaporizers, is advertised with nicotine strengths of 0 mg, 10 mg and 20 mg.
How many cigarettes are “in” an electronic cigarette?
According to analysts, Elf Bar 600 contains the equivalent of 48 cigarettes.
It takes 600 puffs before you have to throw it away, which means that, in theory, every 12.5 puffs is equivalent to one cigarette.
Experts say that for many e-cigarettes, 100 puffs are equivalent to ten regular cigarettes.
Elf Bars is a brand of e-cigarettes that are often sold in stylish colors and with kid-friendly names and flavors, like Blue Razz Lemonade and Green Gummy Bear.
Is vaping better for your health than cigarettes?
According to the NHS, vaping products are considered better than cigarettes as users are exposed to fewer toxins and at lower levels.
The health service adds that vaping instead of smoking cigarettes reduces exposure to toxins that can cause cancer, lung diseases, and heart and circulation diseases, such as strokes and heart attacks.
Public Health England, which no longer exists, published an independent expert review in 2015 that concluded that e-cigarettes are around 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes.
However, vaping is not risk-free, as although the levels in tobacco products are much higher, e-cigarettes still contain harmful toxins, according to a study by researchers at the Medical University of Silesia in Poland.
And Dr. Onkar Mudhar, a London dentist who posts videos on TikTok, said Elf bars can cause gum inflammation, swelling and bleeding.
He said this is because nicotine dries out the mouth and reduces saliva, which causes irritation due to a buildup of bacteria and food that cannot be removed.
Almost 350 vaping hospitalizations were recorded in England in 2022, which are thought to be mainly due to respiratory problems such as difficulty breathing, chest pain, lung inflammation and, in severe cases, respiratory failure.
