A family holiday in Turkey turned into a nightmare scenario for the family of 17-year-old Jayden Richardson. The boy started coughing up blood on their final day abroad, which was dissmised by doctors as a stomach ulcer from “eating too many kebabs”. It was later revealed there was severe lung damage caused by a now 5-year old vaping habit – meaning he started when he was 12. The teenager’s has now become a vocal advocate against using the electronic cigarettes, as they nearly destroyed his life.
Childhood Habit to Medical Emergency
Jayden Richardson started vaping when he was just 12 years old. He says he was driven by peer pressure and the desire to “fit in” with his friends, a very common occurrence in middle school. What started as social behavior quickly turned into a serious addiction problem, with Jayden going through a 10ml bottle of vape juice every two to three days – which calculates to roughly 50 traditional cigarettes a day. “Everyone was doing it around me. I felt like it was kind of to fit in but it just felt normal to do it,” Jayden explained. The breaking point came while Jayden and his family went on holiday in Turkey last summer. The teen started experiencing mild chest pain that quickly turned into a serious medical emergency. With a morning puff on his vape, Jayden felt a normal “chesty cough” that came with blood. The amount started small but was getting worse fast. “I got into the swimming pool and as soon as I got in, I’m just coughing up loads of blood into my hands,” Jayden recounted. “I’m coughing up pint-loads of blood. It scared me to see, especially at a young age. It was traumatic.”
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Misdiagnosis and Revelation
Once the family got back to the UK, Jayden’s father got him to a hospital after he started coughing up more blood at Birmingham Airport. The doctors originally gave an incorrect diagnosis, suspecting a stomach ulcer as the culprit before even considering any lung damage from vaping. His mother admitted that she originally agreed with the doctors, thinking the blood might have been holiday related – an overindulgence of kebabs, maybe. “Because I was perceiving it as he was sicking it up but he was coughing it up. He was heaving,” his mother explained. “I was thinking ‘I let him have a couple of drinks on holiday, he’s been eating greasy food, he was having a kebab every night’.”
Lung X-rays showed no issues, but doctors continued to investigate. It wasn’t until a week later during an endoscopy that a breakthrough how damaged the teen’ager’s’s lungs were. “The consultant said he’s never seen so much lung damage on a kid. It’s awful. ‘Excessive vaping,’ that’s what they said,” his mother recalled. “I think they were going through the options of everything not thinking that a kid of his age would have severe lung damage.”
Ongoing Recovery and Renewed Warning
Jayden stopped vaping after his diagnosis and was quickly able to bounce back from the bleeding with the right medication. But his story wasn’t over yet. During his birthday party a few months later, he decided to use a vape again, believing “the damage was done” and his body had healed enough to take occasional use here and there. There were immediate consequences as Jayden began coughing up blood again. “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,” Jayden regretfully admitted.
Jayden now awaits a CT scan and experiences frequent sharp, stabbing pains in his chest. His relapse comes just days before Hollyoaks actor Paul Danan passed away due to health issues linked to excessive vaping. Maybe Paul’s passing will sober Jayden up for good, as the teen’s experience has transformed him into a passionate advocate against vaping.
“You don’t know what they’re really putting in. They’re dangerous and no one should touch them,” he warned, supporting the upcoming ban on disposable vapes scheduled for this summer. His message to others is crystal clear: “If I could go back to that moment when I first started I’d tell myself ‘never to touch one of them’. It’s crazy how dangerous they are and what they can actually do to the human body. You don’t realize it when you do it. It just affects you in the long run.”
As Jayden continues to recover, his mother has taken to social media to warn others. “Please reconsider vaping, because you never think it’s going to happen to you.” For Jayden, the scars of his vaping addiction will probably stick around long after the bleeding stops – and we should be wary of the prices we must pay for wanting to fit in with our peers.
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