After vaping the equivalent of 50 cigarettes a day, this teenager received a ‘shock’ diagnosis.
Jayden Richardson, who began vaping at 12 to ‘fit in’, saw his health take a serious hit by the time he turned 17.
While on a family holiday in Turkey in August, Jayden began coughing up blood on the final day of the trip. Once he returned home, he quickly went to the hospital.
“I had a bit of chest pain the night before, but I didn’t think much of it,” Jayden explained. “The next morning, I had a quick puff on my vape, and then it felt like I had a chesty cough.”
Jayden said that when he started coughing, he noticed he was bringing up “small amounts of blood,” but it “wasn’t that serious at first.”
“A couple of hours later, I had some drinks and got into the pool. As soon as I jumped in, I started coughing up large amounts of blood,” he recalled. He was quickly pulled from the pool.
“I rushed to the bathroom and started coughing up large amounts of blood. It was terrifying to see, especially at my age.
“It was a traumatic experience, this went on for about 10 minutes, with me coughing up a lot of blood.”
After returning to Birmingham, Jayden continued to cough up blood, and doctors initially thought it might be a stomach ulcer, likely caused by his eating habits in Turkey. His mother, Elita, speculated that his indulgence in greasy food and alcohol might have contributed.
However, after a series of tests, including lung X-rays and an endoscopy, the results showed severe lung damage.
“They didn’t expect to see such damage in someone his age,” Elita said. The cause? Excessive vaping.
The diagnosis shocked both Jayden and his family. “It was traumatic, especially at such a young age,” Jayden said, reflecting on the intense bleeding that lasted for about 10 minutes.
Following the diagnosis, Jayden was prescribed medication, and he stopped vaping. The bleeding subsided within days. But a few months later, on January 10th, during his birthday celebration, he made the mistake of vaping again. “I thought I was safe after a few months, but I was wrong. I could tell immediately there was going to be blood,” Jayden admitted. The damage had resurfaced.
Now experiencing frequent pain, Jayden is awaiting a CT scan. He has vowed never to vape again. “If I could go back to the moment I first started, I’d tell myself, ‘Don’t ever touch one of those things.’ They’re dangerous, and you don’t realize how much they affect you until it’s too late.”
