Rhiannon Ingle
One otherwise extremely fit gym goer found himself in agony in A&E when 'trapped wind' turned out to be a collapsed lung caused by 'chain vaping'.
A few months back (18 June), Paul Cowling was 'chain vaping' at his desk while working from home when he felt a sudden sharp pain in the right side of his chest.
At first, the 32-year-old IT consultant thought the agonising pain was simply a case of some really bad trapped wind and began to take remedies to relieve his discomfort as he continued to work.
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Recalling the terrifying moment, Pau - who began 'socially' smoking in 2015 but then took up vaping in 2019 and would puff his way through four or five disposable vapes a week - explained: "It was all quite sudden. I was just working at my desk as normal and I took some vape and I got this sudden sharp pain in the right side of my chest.
"I originally thought it was trapped wind because my diaphragm was fully inflated.
"I left work an hour early because I was in so much pain and I was taking lots of gas-releasing remedies because I thought it was trapped wind."
What started off as a 'sharp pain' in his chest then became a 'very heavy dull ache' and, after experiencing this symptom, Paul started feeling 'breathless'.
"The pain was just getting progressively worse. It was terrible and I was struggling to breathe at this point," he recalled.
It was only after he started to struggle to breathe that he contacted 111 online, who booked him in with an out-of-hours GP.
At the appointment, Paul said the doctor told him he had a suspected collapsed lung and was told to go to A&E at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester.
He said he was forced to crawl on the floor of A&E due to the excruciating pain and, after having his chest X-rayed, it was confirmed that his right lung had collapsed.
Paul, Edenfield, Lancashire, said: "I was taken for an x-ray straight away. I was told I had a hemopneumothorax, which is trapped air and blood in my lung.
"With the damage done with smoking and vaping, the walls of your lungs thin and they develop these air sacs outside of the lung.
"The moment I took in the vape it caused one of those bubbles to explode and collapse my lung and because it was so sudden it took a blood vessel with it.
"They told me they needed to put a chest drain in my lung to re-inflate it and they said nine times out of ten this works but it didn't on me.
"This was due to the sheer severity of my collapsed lung."
Before his three-hour operation in Wythenshawe Hospital , Paul had to undergo a double blood transfusion as his sudden collapsed lung had caused a blood vessel inside it to pop.
He was then kept on the ward for five days to monitor his pain levels before being discharged from hospital to recover at home.
Since the incident, Paul has vowed to never touch a vape again and is now raising awareness to other vapers about the irreversible damage smoking them can cause.
He says his collapsed lung has left him with 'life-changing' repercussions and is now not able to be the active person he once was before surgery.
Paul said: "[In surgery], the surgeon cleaned the inside and outside of my lung and they then used some sort of talcum powder to stick my lung back to my ribcage.
"They removed the exploded air sac too and stopped the internal bleeding in my lung too. This has left me with life-changing alterations. There is now a 30% chance that this will happen again too.
"It's put me off vaping for life. I haven't touched one since and the surgeon gave me a very stern warning. I was very upset and emotional just thinking about what I had done to myself."
The doctor told Paul he had the lungs of a 'really heavy smoker' - something that really shocked him, adding: "Before this happened to me, I was a very active, healthy person. I was a keen hiker and I can't do that at the moment.
"I love going to the gym as well and weight training too. I'd go two or three times a week to the gym and I had a personal trainer as well so I had gym equipment at home too."
Reflecting on the incident, Paul added: "I can't believe what has happened to me and I'm still trying to process what happens next.
"I am just trying to raise awareness as much as possible about it."