Having vaped the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day, this teenager was given a ‘shock’ diagnosis.
Jayden Richardson had picked up the habit when he was 12 in order to ‘fit in’ but by 17, his health has paid the price.
The Shropshire lad was on a family holiday in Turkey back in August when he started coughing up blood on the last day, rushing to hospital once he’d flown back.
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“The night before I had a bit of chest pain but didn't really think much of it whatsoever. I woke up the next morning, had a quick go on my vape and just as if I had a bit of a chesty cough,” the teen explained.
Jayden said as he started to cough, he was bringing up ‘little bits of blood’ but it ‘wasn’t really bad at all’.
"But a couple hours later I had a few drinks and stuff and I got into the swimming pool,” he recalled. But as soon as he got in, he was coughing ‘up loads of blood’ and was pulled out.
"Gone straight to the toilet and I'm coughing up pint-loads of blood. It scared me to see, especially at a young age.
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"It was traumatic. That was probably going on for a good 10 minutes of me coughing up pretty heavy blood."
After landing back in Birmingham and coughing up more blood, doctors at the hospital initially assumed he had a stomach ulcer.
His mum, Elita, admitted she thought it could be down to the drinks, greasy food and having a kebab 'every night' in Turkey.
Jayden was sent for lung X-rays but nothing showed up, until an endoscopy revealed he had severe lung damage.
"I think they were going through the options of everything not thinking that a kid of his age would have severe lung damage,” Elita said.
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"A week later that's when he had the camera down. The consultant said he's never seen so much lung damage on a kid. It's awful.
"'Excessive vaping', that's what they said. It was a shock.”
The teen was put on medication and decided to stop vaping, with the bleeding stopping days later.
However, he ‘stupidly’ used a vape months later, on 10 January when celebrating his birthday. And when he started coughing afterwards, he could tell ‘straight away’ there was going to be blood.
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"I thought the damage was done and it would just heal itself and I thought that a few tokes on a vape wouldn't affect me. But I was totally wrong and I can’t believe how easily it was to get the damage done again,” he said.
Feeling frequent pain, Jayden is awaiting a CT scan and has now vowed to ‘never’ use a vape again.
"If I could go back to that moment when I first started [vaping] I'd tell myself 'never to touch one of them',” he explained. “It's crazy how dangerous they are and what they can actually do to the human body. You don't realise it when you do it. It just affects you in the long run. I would never touch one."
Jess Battison