Teenage girl nearly dies as she collapses at sleepover after vaping causes burst hole in lung
A dad has issued a warning to vapers after his 17-year-old daughter nearly died due to a burst hole in her lung.
Mark Blight, 61, a full-time carer from Cumbria, says his daughter Kyla began vaping at 15 and became so addicted she was smoking the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week - by getting through an entire 4,000 puff vape a week.
Dad-of-nine Mark said: "I've been to hell and back with Kyla over the last couple of weeks. I just put it down to vaping, they can't put it down to anything else but vaping that's caused this."
Kyla was first rushed to hospital back in November 2023. She thought she was having a heart attack, but an X-ray showed she had a hole in her lung after a bleb (a blister-like protrusion filled with liquid) had formed.
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In February 2024, Kyla received the good news the hole had healed, until her health took a terrifying turn for the worse on 11 May.
Kya was at a friend's house when Mark received a call at 4am with news no parent wants to hear - Kya had collapsed and turned blue.
He rushed over and took Kya to hospital, where doctors learned the bleb had burst and her lung had collapsed.
Mark said: "They put a drain in her. She's a little girl who doesn't like needles. She screamed. She was close to having a cardiac arrest.
"It was a five and a half hour operation. She'd had a seizure on the operating table.
"It was terrifying for me. I've cried like a baby. It was horrible to watch. I've been with her the whole time."
Mark, who used to vape himself, is now determined to spread awareness about the dangers of vaping.
Mark shared: "I used them to stop smoking 13 years ago and it's never bothered me at all.
"Although you think it doesn't bother you, it might do later on after what happened to Kyla. It's scared me.
"I would say to parents, watching your kid do this, you're going to go through what I went through. It's just not worth it.
"For kids, they don't understand until it happens to them."
For her part, Kyla has said she'll never vape again.
She said: "I honestly thought they were harmless and wouldn't do anything to anyone, even though I had seen so many things about it. I just feel like everyone has that same view.
"But now I won't touch them. I wouldn't go near them. The situation has really scared me out of them.
"I was terrified."
Kya Buller