'She thought it was harmless, but it almost took her life'
“It really did threaten her life because she was so close to having a cardiac arrest on that Friday. They said she went blue; they thought she was gone.”
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A ‘terrified’ dad has spoken out after his teenage daughter nearly died after her vaping habit burst a hole in her lung.
Mark Blight’s daughter Kyla vaped so much she smoke the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week, and the habit took a nasty turn when Kyla collapsed and “turned blue” at a friend’s house.
The Sun reports a small air blister known as a pulmonary bleb had developed at the top of her lungs, and it is believed her excessive vaping caused it to burst.
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The 17-year-old old nearly went into cardiac arrest, and needed a five-and-a-half-hour surgery to remove part of her lung.
Kyla, who started vaping at 15, believed the habit was “harmless”, and would routinely get through a 4000 puff vape every week, the equivalent of 400 cigarettes.
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"I've been to hell and back with Kyla"
Dad Mark, a father-of-nine, took to Facebook to warn other young people of the dangers of vapes, urging them to “throw away vapes” because it’s “not worth it”.
“I’ve been to hell and back with Kyla over the past couple of weeks,” he wrote.
“I just put it down to vaping, they can’t put it down to anything else but vaping that’s caused this.
“She was at a friend’s house, and I got a phone call at 4am that she had collapsed and gone blue.
“Her lung collapsed this time due to the hole, and she was close to having a cardiac arrest.
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“They rushed us into Newcastle and she had the operation on Tuesday.
“It was a five-and-a-half-hour operation, and she’d had a seizure on the operating table.
“I was talking to the surgeon and he was talking about the blebs that can form on the lungs. They think it’s the throw away vapes that burst these blebs and puncture a hole in your lung.
“Apparently it’s a big thing now. He’s done a lot of operations like this.”
RELATED: ‘Am I going to hell for vaping while I’m pregnant?’
"It was horrible to watch"
Mark wrote that it was “excruciating” watching his daughter go through such a major scare.
“It was terrifying for me,” he wrote.
“I’ve cried like a baby. It was horrible to watch.
“It really did threaten her life because she was so close to having a cardiac arrest on that Friday. They said she went blue; they thought she was gone.”
Kyla’s near-death experience was the culmination of months of health concerns.
The Sun reports the 17-year-old initially went to hospital in November last year after she believed she was having a heart attack.
An X-ray revealed she had a hole in her lung after a bleb had formed.
She was again taken to hospital in February, but she was then told by doctors her lung had healed.
Then, on May 11, she was hospitalised for two weeks after the most recent scare.
RELATED: Mum's warning after 12yo put into induced coma after vaping
"I just thought it would be harmless"
The 17-year-old told The Sun the experience had “terrified” her and she wouldn’t be touching a vape again.
“When I was 15 it started becoming a popular thing,” she said.
“All my friends were doing it, so I just thought it would be harmless and that I would be fine.
“Everyday 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 it.
“Now I won’t touch them. The situation has really scared me out of them.
“I was terrified. We went to hospital thinking we were only going to be there for a few hours, but ended up being there for two weeks.”
RELATED: ‘Disturbing’: Shocking video of Adelaide teenager pressuring 4yo girl to vape
"There should definitely be a ban"
Mark is now in favour of government’s around the world banning disposable vapes to limit a minor’s potential access.
“For kids there should definitely be a ban,” the 61-year-old told The Sun.
“These chemicals they’ve got in them haven’t been tested properly.
“I would say to parents who are watching their kids 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.”
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Originally published as 'She thought it was harmless, but it almost took her life'
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