I started vaping to help me quit smoking – one month later my lung collapsed and needed glueing back inside my body
A DAD-TO-BE claims that vaping for just one month caused his lung to collapse.
Alex Gittins then needed gruelling surgery to have it "glued" back onto his chest wall.
The 31-year-old swapped cigarettes for the electronic kind in April in an attempt to quit smoking, inhaling two 600-puff devices a week.
But on May 25, he developed a pain in his right-hand side.
The roofer, who was working in Leeds at the time, says the stabbing sensation felt like a "stitch" and breathing suddenly became excruciating.
As the throbbing travelled to his left side and up towards his chest over the next 90 minutes, a "panicked" Alex feared he was having a heart attack.
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He rushed to Darlington Memorial Hospital in County Durham where, after an X-ray, doctors confirmed his right lung had "no air in it whatsoever" having collapsed due to a condition known as pneumothorax.
Alex said: "I'd just texted my partner saying that I was going to hospital because I had a few pains in my chest but there was nothing to worry about.
"Then it literally went from complaining at the desk saying I couldn't breathe properly to lying in resuscitation in A&E.
"It crossed my mind that I could die. I'm someone who doesn't really go to the doctor, I just get on with it, but I was scared."
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A tube was swiftly inserted into his rib cage to push out the trapped air and built-up fluid that was slowly crushing his lungs and chest.
However, when the lung failed to heal naturally, the terrified lad was transferred to the James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, on June 1 for surgery.
During the two-hour operation, doctors cut out a portion of the afflicted organ before stapling it back together and using a white powder to "glue" the lung to Alex's chest wall to prevent it from collapsing again.
Alex, who is due to become a father for the first time in September, now fears the vapes he was using were "counterfeit".
The future parent claims that he was so breathless he went "grey" in the A&E waiting room, and believes that he "could have died".
Alex, from Bishop Auckland, said: "I think the vape I was using wasn't genuine.
"A vape alone can't be any good for you, let alone a fake one.
"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."
I was scared. It crossed my mind that I could die.
Alex Gittins
Alex was sent home from hospital on June 9 with a large tube inserted into his right side and attached to a plastic bag to catch any remaining fluid.
He said he is still adjusting to his newly-glued lung, getting breathless when walking for more than five minutes.
He's been told he should be back to normal within eight weeks, but there is still a two per cent chance the lung could collapse again.
"Every time I coughed, the bag would fill up like a balloon," he said.
"They said that within six to eight weeks of surgery I should be able to do everything I could beforehand, but I'm not sure.
"If I have a walk, it feels like I've been walking for an hour rather than five minutes. I just feel out of breath and tired all the time.
"Everyone heals differently so I have to wait and see, but I don't think there's supposed to be any long-term impact.
"They say there's a 98 per cent chance that it won't happen again, which is good, but it's not 100 per cent."
His surgeons have told him he can never smoke or vape again - and he wants others to follow suit.
VAPE DANGERS
"I definitely regret buying vapes," he said.
"I think people should stop vaping, but people don't listen unless it happens to someone close to home.
"I'm more excited [for the birth of my child] now than I was.
"This has just opened my eyes - I used to be a nightmare before for being like, 'Oh, I'll just do that tomorrow'.
"And then I left home for work and didn't come home for 15 days. Anything can happen in a day."
Vapes have been linked to at least five deaths in Britain, with reports of the devices leaving kids suffering from collapsed lungs.
NHS figures show 40 youngsters under the age of 19 were admitted to hospital over the past year because of illegally-sold e-cigs.
Among them were 15 children aged nine or under - up from 12 last year and just two the year before.
Experts have warned that "youth vaping is fast becoming an epidemic among kids".
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The Sun last night revealed how gadgets contaminated with a deadly, flash-eating drug have been found in the UK.
Xylazine, a horse tranquilliser causing havoc with drug users in the US, was discovered in modified e-cigarettes in Luton, Bedfordshire,
