A roofer says he is taking legal action against a shop over allegations a vape left him with a collapsed lung. Alex Gittins, 31, wants the shop to be shut down and has hired a lawyer to pursue a case.
He claims a vape bought from the shop caused him serious damage. Alex says his injuries have forced him to sign off from work, meaning he is losing out financially. An Easi-Vape spokesperson confirmed a lawyer had been in touch.
But they said there was "no evidence" one of its vapes was responsible for the alleged harm. Alex, who is expecting a child in September, said: “My major concern is that this could have happened to kids.
"So many of them are running round smoking vapes and yet the government is doing nothing to get them banned. You know what a fag does to you; you don’t know what a vape does
“Something’s not right - kids could die."
Alex, from Bishop Auckland, says he been buying disposable vapes from the shop for four months. He was paying £20 for six, and had smoked several without any issue.
But, as he was puffing on a vape on May 25, he says he realised something was wrong. Alex said: “I started smoking it when it suddenly didn’t create the mist properly. There was a horrible taste in my throat.
“Then five or ten minutes later I was stood there and breathing in, but it felt like I had a massive stitch. It started getting worst over the next hour.”
Alex was driving back from work in Leeds when his chest began to feel much worse. He took himself to a walk-in centre - where he was instructed to go to nearest hospital.
He went to A&E, where his breathing continuing to deteriorate. And when a doctor examined him he was given shocking news: his right lung had collapsed. He was transferred to a respiratory ward to reinflate his lung.
But what is normally a routine procedure failed and his lung was continuing to leak fluid. Doctors attempted to remove the fluid using suction, but after two days, fluid was still in his lung and it had yet to reinflate.
Alex was then taken by ambulance for emergency surgery in Middlesbrough on June 2. Surgeons removed a piece of his lung before stapling it back together, and then inflated it on June 5.
Doctors kept him on the ward until June 9, when he was discharged. Alex is continuing to have weekly check-ups but still struggles to fully catch his breath.
And he has been discharged from his work for the next month. Alex is adamant that it was the vape, bought from Easi-Vape, which hospitalised him.
He claims NHS staff told him they are seeing more and more incidents where people are hospitalised from vapes. Alex is in contact with a lawyer who is now working on a case.
He also reported the shop to Trading Standards three weeks ago, he says. Alex's partner is expecting a baby on September 12.
But with Alex self-employed, he is worried they will have to survive solely on her income from her job at Specsavers. Easi-Vape confirmed that it had been in contact with a lawyer representing Alex’s case.
A spokesperson said: “Durham council been out to see us. All of our products have an MHRA number on them and are totally legal. Alex can do what he likes, there's no evidence that our vapes caused what happened to him.
“The customer in question has been smoking for the last 15 yeas, we don't know what he wants but we've got all our evidence.”
