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Teen Claims He's Got Lungs Of An 80-Year-Old Smoker After Vaping For Six Months

Teen Claims He's Got Lungs Of An 80-Year-Old Smoker After Vaping For Six Months

Ewan Fisher, 19, spent weeks in intensive care after his lungs failed the night before he was due to start his GCSEs

Rebecca Shepherd

Rebecca Shepherd

A teenager has claimed that he's been left with the lungs of an 80-year-old smoker after he vaped for six months in a bid to ditch cigarettes.

Ewan Fisher was an aspiring boxer but the night before he was due to begin his GCSEs his lungs failed and he ended up in intensive care.

Ewan was an aspiring boxer.
Ewan Fisher

According to the MailOnline, the now 19-year-old, from Nottingham, needed an artificial lung to survive and spent 10 weeks in hospital as doctors fought to save his life.

Despite being discharged and sent home, Ewan now says he experiences similar things a lifelong smoker of 80-years-old would face such as getting out of breath walking up stairs.

Ewan took up vaping so that he would stop smoking, believing it would improve his fitness. But it's now thought he suffered an exaggerated immune response to chemicals found in e-cigarette fluid.

Ewan now.
Ewan Fisher

Ewan told FEMAIL: "They tried telling me that I'd make a full recovery, but it's nearly four years on and I still really struggle. They said my lungs would make a full recovery within two years but it's been a lot longer and I wouldn't even say they're at 60 percent.

"I used to be really healthy. I used to run every night and I can't do anything anymore. When it's hot it messes with my lungs. I'm on steroids to help them cope. I can't run, I really struggle up hills. It's ruined all my joints. My life's changed massively.

"My granddad is fitter than me and he's 65. When I was in hospital they said I had the lungs of an 80-year-old life-long smoker and I'd only vaped for five or six months."

Ewan Fisher

Ewan hit the headlines last year after doctors issued a warning about his case.

Dr Jayesh Mahendra Bhatt, a consultant in paediatric respiratory medicine at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, who was one of the doctors that treated Ewan, told the PA: "The evidence we gathered showed that it was that [vaping] that was to blame.

"I know at least one colleague who has seen a similar case."

Ewan in hospital.
Ewan Fisher

The doctors added: "There are two important lessons here. The first is always to consider a reaction to e-cigarettes in someone presenting with an atypical respiratory illness. The second is that we consider e-cigarettes as 'much safer than tobacco' at our peril."

Since leaving hospital, and the years that have followed, Ewan has finished a Level 3 BTEC in business and finance and is hoping to train as an accountant.

He also travels around the country talking to school kids about the dangers of vaping but thinks the sweet flavours are a way of enticing children to get into vaping.

Ewan is now hoping to train as an accountant.
Ewan Fisher

He went on: "The flavours are really addictive. When I went into the hospital they took my vape and I was vaping blue flush (blackberry flavour) and I had a rhubarb and custard one too.

"It's that sort of stuff that got me addicted. Those sweet flavours are addictive and they entice young people. If you can get sweet flavorus like Coca-Cola, it attracts young people. Every flavour is out there - even cookies and cream."

Ewan also believes that the high strength vapes sold in America - which contain two and a half times more nicotine than EU rules stipulate - would cause 'mayhem' in the UK.

He said: "I wasn't even vaping the high nicotine stuff - I was 6mg of nicotine. I tried the higher ones and it was making me choke. I was about 16 and I'd just started vaping and I took a hit of my mates ones and I was choking for ages.

"If those high-strength vapes came over here it would cause mayhem."

This view is backed by vape expert Jim Kang, who runs American firm vaporsolo.com.

He said: "The US' high-strength vapes have been blamed on our public health crisis among high school kids.

"It's obvious that firms are targeting kids with these sweet flavours and the UK government should do everything in its power to stop it having the same issues that we've sadly had to deal with in the States."

Featured Image Credit: Ewan Fisher

Topics: Viral, UK