A man in his 30s has claimed that vaping for just a month caused his lung to collapse and it had to be “glued” back inside his body in a complex procedure. Roofer Alex Gittins, 31, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, only began vaping in April in a bid to quit smoking and began inhaling two 600-puff e-cigarettes a week.
However, he was worried when he started to feel pain in his right-hand side after taking a puff of his vape on May 25.
At the time, Mr Gittins, who was working in Leeds, Yorkshire, felt a stabbing pain on his hand which he said felt like a “stitch”.
Breathing was difficult and the pain travelled to his left side and up towards his chest.
He immediately rushed to the hospital fearing he was sufferin a heart attack.
He said: “I went up to the receptionist and showed her that I was going grey and literally couldn’t breathe.
“The doctor took me to an X-Ray room and I got a bit panicked. Then some doctors came in and they said they’d have to put a chest tube in because my lung had collapsed.
“My right lung just wasn’t there anymore. It had no air in it whatsoever.”
Doctors told him that his right lung had collapsed due to a condition known as pneumothorax.
Later, a tube was swiftly inserted into his ribcage to push out the trapped air and built-up fluid that was slowly crushing his lungs and chest.
However, he was soon transferred to The James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, on June 1 for surgery as his lung failed to heal naturally.
During the two-hour operation, doctors cut out some of his lung before stapling it back together and then using a substance to “glue” the lung to Mr Gittins’ chest wall to prevent it from collapsing again.
The roofer now believes vaping and fears the vape he used was “counterfeit”.
He said: “Now I think back, knowing what happened, it did feel like I felt my lung collapse. But obviously you don’t know what a lung collapse feels like unless you’re a doctor.
“I think the vape I was using wasn’t genuine. I think it might have been a counterfeit one.” He added: “I always say I’d rather smoke a cigarette because at least I know a cigarette kills me – you don’t know what’s in a vape.
“I always said I wouldn’t start smoking vapes – and now I have and look what’s happened to me.” The shocking incident comes as concerns grow over the safety of vapes and e-cigarettes across the UK.
It emerged that five deaths have been directly linked to e-cigarettes in the UK.
The deaths, all since 2010, have been described by experts as just the “tip of the iceberg”, with 1,000 serious adverse reactions logged by Britain’s health watchdog.
