Twins left unconscious and foaming at mouth after being given vape in park
Warning: This article contains content which some readers may find distressing
A mother has given a stark warning to children not to touch another person's vape after her twin daughters were left 'foaming at the mouth' and nearly died after inhaling from one laced with spice and MDMA.
It was just another day at work on accounts for Kay Fores, from Hull, on 29 April, but everything changed in a matter of moments with a phone call from her sister telling her that her twin daughters had been found unconscious at their local park.
Fores claims her 13-year-old daughters, Scarlett and Olivia Bywood, met some girls they 'knew from the other side of town', who gave them what was believed to be a normal vape.
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However, within 10 minutes, the two teenagers fell to the hard ground unconscious, with Scarlett left foaming at the mouth. The other girls fled the scene, but thankfully, a neighbour spotted the ordeal and called an ambulance before alerting Kay's sister.
"I had been at work and the next minute I was getting a phone call that my kids had overdosed," Kay explained.
"My next-door neighbour went to the park and she was crying because she saw the state of them. She rang my sister and my sister rang me. By that time, they were already in the ambulance.
"I went to the park but they had been taken by an ambulance. One got her head cut, the other has a black eye.
"If they hadn't been found at the park, they would be dead. They didn't know anything about these vapes, they were just given them and gave it a go."
Kay was left 'devastated' when she arrived at Hull Royal Infirmary to see her daughter unconscious and on IV drips. It took the pair six hours to wake up, and blood tests confirmed they had been spiked with two different illegal drugs.
She said: "They can't remember anything. They blacked out. One of them was foaming at the mouth.
"We know everybody at the park. The people they were with just left them unconscious and just went.
"They were still out of it when I got there. They could have died. They've been on drips.
"They kept checking their blood, it [the vape] was spiked with MDMA and spice. The girls were out for around six hours."
Thankfully, the pair left hospital the next day and are on the road to recovery. Kay added: "They were released from hospital this morning. They're fine now. They can't remember anything; they are quite shocked."
Children warned about the dangers of using someone else's vape
Kay shared her children's story on social media, where it was quickly branded as a 'sick prank', as she just wants 'other parents to know' about the potential danger of their kids using someone else's vapes. A risk that could be fatal.
"They just thought it was a normal vape. Ten minutes later, this happened. If nobody got to them, they would have died," Kay said.
"I don't think they will vape again. It was absolutely devastating. I want other kids to realise not to touch anybody's vape at all. Because the next person could be dead."
How old do you have to be to Vape in the UK?
Initially released as a way to help smokers pack in the fags, e-cigarettes and vapes have boomed in popularity in recent years and there has been a worrying uptick in youngsters using them.
There have been countless medical horror stories connected with the abuse of vapes, too, with one teenager who vaped the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day suffering severely damaged lungs and coughing up 'pint-loads of blood'.
As a result, the legal age limit to vape in the United Kingdom is 18. As the NHS states: "Vaping is not for children and young people. Their developing lungs and brains mean they are more sensitive to its effects. Nicotine vaping is less harmful than smoking, but it is not risk-free.
"That's why there's a minimum age of sale for vaping products in the UK. It is illegal to sell nicotine vaping products to anyone under 18 or for adults to buy them on behalf of under-18s."
Daniel Murphy