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.
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.”
He was coughing up ‘pints’ of blood while on holiday. (Kennedy News and Media)
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.
He said he started vaping to ‘fit in’. (Kennedy News and Media)
“‘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.”
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media
Kit Roberts
Teenager who vaped equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day given ‘shock’ diagnosis after coughing ‘pints’ of blood
Follow us on Google DiscoverHaving vaped the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day, this teenager was given a ‘shock’ diagnosis.
Jayden Richardson had picked up the habit when he was 12 in order to ‘fit in’ but by 17, his health has paid the price.
The Shropshire lad was on a family holiday in Turkey back in August when he started coughing up blood on the last day, rushing to hospital once he’d flown back.
“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,” the teen explained.
Jayden said as he started to cough, he was bringing up ‘little bits of blood’ but it ‘wasn’t really bad at all’.
He said he started vaping to ‘fit in’. (Kennedy News and Media)
“But a couple hours later I had a few drinks and stuff and I got into the swimming pool,” he recalled. But as soon as he got in, he was coughing ‘up loads of blood’ and was pulled out.
“Gone straight to the toilet and I’m coughing up pint-loads of blood. 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.”
After landing back in Birmingham and coughing up more blood, doctors at the hospital initially assumed he had a stomach ulcer.
His mum, Elita, admitted she thought it could be down to the drinks, greasy food and having a kebab ‘every night’ in Turkey.
Jayden was sent for lung X-rays but nothing showed up, until an endoscopy revealed he had severe lung damage.
“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.
He was coughing up ‘pints’ of blood while on holiday. (Kennedy News and Media)
“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.”
The teen was put on medication and decided to stop vaping, with the bleeding stopping days later.
However, he ‘stupidly’ used a vape months later, on 10 January when celebrating his birthday. And when he started coughing afterwards, he could tell ‘straight away’ there was going to be 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. But I was totally wrong and I can’t believe how easily it was to get the damage done again,” he said.
Feeling frequent pain, Jayden is awaiting a CT scan and has now vowed to ‘never’ use a vape again.
“If I could go back to that moment when I first started [vaping] I’d tell myself ‘never to touch one of them’,” he explained. “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.”
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and Media
Jess Battison
Teenager who ‘ruined life’ taking 11 grams of ketamine a day was doing drug in school toilets
A teenager opened up on how he developed a ketamine habit which took a heavy toll on his life.
At the height of his addiction Mark was consuming up to 11 grams a day of the drug, though he recently hit 100 days clean after getting into rehab.
Speaking to Scott Hames, Mark opened up on how he started getting into drugs and everything he lost as a result of his addiction.
He said he was in school and aged around 13 when he started going to a youth club where some older kids showed up and they soon became friends.
Mark explained that they were ‘trying weed’ at first but while they started off by ‘sitting around the park smoking weed’ they ended up trying alcohol and ‘robbing shops for it’ to get booze or things they could sell for alcohol.
Mark said he started taking ketamine in his school toilets (YouTube/Scott Hames Journalist)
From there they moved to cocaine and ketamine, which when combined they called ‘Calvin Klein’.
He said: “A bag would last me a week, and very quickly it weren’t lasting me a week to where it were up to 11 grams a day.”
Remembering the first time he used ketamine, Mark said he’d been at a party and there was someone there ‘peeing blood’ who showed the teenager the symptoms of long-term ketamine use, but he tried it anyway.
When he next had some money to spend he decided he didn’t want to spend it on alcohol and decided he’d rather get ketamine instead.
“So it turned into me getting that, you know, just starting off doing little bumps, liking it,” the teen said.
“And then very quickly it started becoming a everyday thing for me where I was doing it in the school toilets. But when I did it in school, I didn’t go overboard and I felt like I could sit there with myself, concentrate.
“When I’ve managed to use in school, I didn’t I didn’t get referred out in my class.”
Quickly he reached the point where he was taking ’11 grams a day’, leading him to drop out of college and lose the chance at his dream job (YouTube/Scott Hames Journalist)
Things grew worse and worse and at times he was found ‘walking in middle of the road, just lost not knowing where I am’, and he felt he really became addicted in the time between school and college where there was ‘nothing to do’ and ‘a lot of parties’.
He did get a job, but ended up ‘blitzing all his money’ on ketamine and when he went to college to try and become a paramedic his addiction scuppered that.
“I’ve lost my my dream job. You know, ever since I was a kid, I’ve always said ‘I’ll be a paramedic’,” Mark said.
Dropping out of college just before he was set to do a work placement in a hospital, Mark eventually started feeling some of the long term effects of ketamine including serious bladder pain.
He ended up getting sacked from his job due to the effects of the drug and he was in serious pain to the point where he was ‘screaming in agony’ due to ‘stabbing pains’.
Mark has since ditched the ketamine after rehab, and when Scott asked if he had any regrets he said ‘yeah and no’ before further explaining his thoughts about the impact it had on his life.
“I don’t regret doing it because obviously I’m a teenager and I experimented, you know, as quite a lot of teenagers do, we’d drink,” he said.
“But I regret thinking that it was normal. That’s what I thought were normal… going into shops, robbing the drinks.
“My mum crying at end of my bed, my sister heartbroken, I just got so numb to that feeling. I couldn’t do it.
“I regret getting into that cycle of constantly needing it. I regret dropping out of college because I could have been so much further.
“I regret taking that first drug to be honest because that’s when the obsession comes, then you get into that cycle again. I regret needing to drop out of college to get some money to fund my addiction.”
If you want friendly, confidential advice about drugs, you can talk to FRANK. You can call 0300 123 6600, text 82111 or contact through their website 24/7, or livechat from 2pm-6pm any day of the week
Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Scott Hames Journalist
