Teenager who vaped equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day given ‘shock’ diagnosis after coughing ‘pints’ of blood
A teenager who started vaping when he was just 12 years old experienced horrifying symptoms, with a doctor saying they had 'never seen that much lung damage on a kid.'
Jayden Richardson described how he had been on holiday in Turkey with his family when his health started to get worse.
The 17-year-old from Shropshire said that he had picked up the habit because he wanted to 'fit in', and was vaping enough to make up 50 cigarettes in a single day.
At present, the advice from the NHS is that vaping is less dangerous than smoking, and it is used as a tool to quit smoking.
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However, the website also says that 'vaping is not completely harmless and we don’t know yet what the long-term effects may be', as well as warning that vaping should only be used as a way to quit smoking, rather than as a habit in itself.
Jayden described his symptoms, saying: “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."
But then Jayden recalled how when he coughed he started to see 'little bits of blood', though at the time he thought it 'wasn't really bad at all'.
However, things took a big turn after a couple of hours when he decided to go for a swim in the pool.
While in the pool, Jayden recalled that he started to cough up a lot more blood, and had to be pulled out of the water.
"I'm coughing up pint-loads of blood," he said. "It scared me to see, especially at a young age.
"It was traumatic. That was probably going on for a good 10 minutes of me coughing up pretty heavy blood."
Jayden travelled back to Birmingham, where he was rushed to hospital as he continued to cough up blood.
Initially doctors believed that he was suffering with a stomach ulcer, which his mum Elita said she believed could be because of too many drinks and eating greasy food 'every night' in Turkey.
But when an endoscopy came back, it revealed that Jayden had severe damage to his lungs.
"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.
"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.”
Jayden was prescribed medication, and quit vaping.
But a few months later, he said that he 'stupidly' used a vape while celebrating his birthday on January 10, which caused him to start coughing again.
He knew 'straight away' he would cough up blood.
"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," he said. "But I was totally wrong and I can’t believe how easily it was to get the damage done again."
Jayden has now sworn to 'never' again use a vape, and is waiting for a CT scan to assess how bad the damage is.
He opened up about how differently he would act if he knew the damage he could do.
"If I could go back to that moment when I first started [vaping] I'd tell myself 'never to touch one of them',” he said.
“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."
Kit Roberts