Now I won't touch them, says British teen who suffered collapsed lung from vaping

A teenage girl in Britain was hospitalised in May due to a collapsed lung, reportedly after she vaped the equivalent of 400 cigarettes in a week, or an average of 57 a day.

Kyla Blight, 17, was at a friend's house for a sleepover when she collapsed and turned "blue" early on May 11, Metro reported.

Kyla burst a small air blister, known as a pulmonary bleb, on her lungs. When a bleb bursts, the air escapes into the chest cavity, causing a pneumothorax. This, in turn, can result in a collapsed lung.

She underwent surgery for 5½ hours to remove part of her lung after nearly going into cardiac arrest, the report said.

Her father, Mark, a resident of Egremont in Cumbria, said he received a call at about 4am.

"It was terrifying for me," he was quoted by Metro as saying. "I cried like a baby. It was horrible to watch. I've been with her the whole time."

Calling the situation "life-threatening", Blight said Kyla had a seizure on the operating table.

"They said she went blue," he said. "They thought she was gone."

Kyla started vaping when she was 15 after seeing schoolmates pick it up, Metro said. She had been going through 4,000 puff vapes — the equivalent of 400 cigarettes — a week, the report claimed.

"All my friends were doing it," she told Metro. "I just thought it would be harmless and that I would be fine. But now I won't touch them. I wouldn't go near them. The situation has really scared me out of them."

Following surgery, Kyla spent two weeks in hospital before she could return home.

According to the report, she was hospitalised in November 2023 with a suspected heart attack. An X-ray showed a hole in her lung after a bleb had formed. She was taken to hospital again in February 2024, and was told the bleb had healed.

After his daughter's ordeal, Blight urged youngsters to stop using vapes saying, "it's not worth it".

"I've been to hell and back with Kyla over the last couple of weeks," he told Metro. "I just put it down to vaping, they can't put it down to anything else but vaping that's caused this."

The report said Blight, who has vaped for 13 years to help quit cigarettes, had previously caught Kyla using one.

But he said he was not aware about when she started vaping, or the extent of it, until her close call.

"For kids, there should definitely be a ban," he said.

"Especially the throw-away ones. These chemicals that they've got in them haven't been tested properly. Until the government does tests on it, people are going to do it."

ALSO READ: 'Popcorn lung', cancer: Experts warn of dangers as vaping among youth in Singapore spikes

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.