17-Year-Old Girl Hospitalized After Turning ‘Blue’ from Vaping Equivalent of 57 Cigarettes a Day

A 17-year-old girl in the UK, Kyla Blythe, was rushed to the hospital after a hole burst in her lung, following excessive vaping which equated to smoking 400 cigarettes a week. The incident occurred on May 11 when Kyla collapsed and turned ‘blue’ during a sleepover at a friend’s house.

The collapse was caused by a pulmonary bleb, a small air blister on her lung that burst due to excessive vaping. Kyla underwent a five-and-a-half-hour surgery to remove part of her lung. Her father, Mark Blythe, described the ordeal as terrifying. “I’ve cried like a baby. It was horrible to watch. I’ve been with her the whole time. It was life-threatening. She was so close to having a cardiac arrest. They said she went blue. They thought she’d gone”, reported Metro.

Kyla began vaping at 15, influenced by her peers and believing it to be harmless. She had been consuming an entire 4,000-puff vape each week. This recent health scare has left her deeply frightened.

“When I was 15, it started becoming a popular thing. All my friends were doing it. I just thought it would be harmless and that I would be fine. Every day I would use the 4,000-puff ones and I would go through them in about a week. I honestly thought they were harmless and wouldn’t do anything to anyone, even though I had seen so many things about them.

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 scared me out of them. I was terrified. We went in there thinking we were only going to be in there for a few hours but ended up being there for two weeks having surgeries and all this,” she said.

Her father has also issued a warning to other young people, urging them to “throw away vapes because it’s not worth it.” According to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), the popularity of vapes among children is rising rapidly, with the number of children who have tried vaping nearly doubling to 20% in 2023.

Alarmingly, children as young as five are also getting addicted to vaping, leading to severe health issues like collapsed lungs. Besides lung damage, vaping can stunt brain growth in teenagers due to toxic chemicals like lead and uranium found in vape products.