Roofer who claims the vape left him with a collapsed lung vows to take legal action against the shop

A roofer has vowed to take legal action against a vape shop in County Durham over claims an e-cigarette left him with a collapsed lung.

Alex Gittins, 31, is calling for Easi-Vape in Bishop Auckland’s Newgate Street to be closed permanently and has hired a lawyer to fight his case.

He claims that a vaporizer he bought from the high street shop landed him in hospital and forced him to undergo multiple operations.

In turn, the roofer’s injuries have seen him disengage from work, which means he now suffers financially due to the nature of his work as a self-employed roofer.

An Easi-Vape spokesperson confirmed that a lawyer had contacted the store, but said there was “no evidence” that its vapes caused Mr Gittins’ condition.

Instead, the store spokesperson claimed that all the products Easi-Vape sells are legal and approved by the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Mr Gittins, who is expecting a child in September, said: “My main concern is that this could have happened to the children.”

Many of them are smoking vaporizers, and yet the government is doing nothing to ban them.

You know what makes you a fagot; you don’t know what a vape does. Something is not right, children can die.

Gittins, from Bishop Auckland, says she has been buying disposable vaporizers at the store for four months.

I was paying £20 for six disposable vapes and had smoked several without a problem.

But, while smoking a vaporizer on May 25, he claimed he realized something was wrong.

Mr Gittins said: “I started smoking it when all of a sudden it didn’t create the mist correctly.” He had a horrible taste in his throat.

“Then five or 10 minutes later, I was standing there and breathing, but I felt like I had a huge stitch.

“It started to get worse over the next hour.”

The roofer was returning from work in Leeds when he began to feel severe chest pain.

Alex Gittins, 31, (pictured) was forced to undergo multiple operations after his right lung collapsed.

He took himself to a walk-in center in Hartlepool, where he was told to go to the nearest hospital.

He went to A&E in Darlington, where his breathing continues to deteriorate.

And when a doctor examined him, he gave him some shocking news: his right lung had collapsed.

He was moved to a breathing room to reinflate his lung.

But what is normally a routine procedure failed, and her lung continued to leak fluid.

The doctors tried to remove the fluid by suction, but after two days, the fluid was still in his lung and had not yet re-inflated.

Gittins was then taken by ambulance for emergency surgery in Middlesbrough on June 2.

Surgeons removed a portion of his lung before reattaching it with staples and then inflating it on June 5.

The doctors kept him on the ward until June 9, when he was released.

Mr. Gittins continues to have weekly checkups, but is still having a hard time getting his breath back fully.

And you’ve been laid off from your job for the next month.

Gittins insists it was the vaporizer, purchased from Easi-Vape, that hospitalized him.

He claims NHS staff told him they are seeing more and more incidents where people are hospitalized for vaping.

Alex Gittins has undergone multiple operations and continues to have trouble breathing.

Mr. Gittins is in contact with a lawyer who is now working on a case.

He also reported the store to Trading Standards three weeks ago, he says.

The Gittin couple is expecting a baby on September 12.

Being self-employed, she worries that they will have to survive solely on the income from her job at Specsavers.

Easi-Vape confirmed that it had been in contact with a lawyer representing Mr. Gittin’s case.

A spokesman said: ‘Durham council have come to see us. All of our products have an MHRA number and are fully legal.

“Alex can do whatever he wants, there’s no evidence that our vaporizers caused what happened to him.”

‘The client in question has been smoking for the last 15 years, we don’t know what he wants but we have all our evidence.’