**Schoolboy Collapses and Stops Breathing After Vaping Incident Before Class**
A secondary school pupil at St Joseph’s RC High School in Horwich, Greater Manchester, suffered a terrifying medical emergency after using a vape before the school day began. The incident, which occurred during morning registration, saw the student collapse and temporarily stop breathing, prompting staff to prepare an emergency defibrillator as they waited for medical help.
Tony McCabe, the school’s headteacher, has spoken out about the growing dangers posed by vaping among young people. Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Mr McCabe described the ordeal as “potentially the scariest day of my role as a teacher”. He recounted how the pupil was taken aside by staff after falling ill, but suddenly deteriorated to the point specialists feared for the child’s life.
Mr McCabe highlighted that the issue is no longer isolated or rare at his school. “We are very aware of how common vaping is among young people here. On just one first day back, we had over 100 pupils found with vapes,” he explained. In response to this trend, the school decided to install specialist vape sensors in the toilets after struggling to keep numbers down using traditional monitoring methods. “We’d never really seen them walking around openly with vapes – it’s always hidden, done in secret, and that’s what makes it so dangerous,” he added.
The headteacher also raised concerns about how easy it is for vaping incidents to go unnoticed by parents and carers. Unlike traditional cigarettes, vape fumes do not linger noticeably on clothing, making it harder for families to detect when their children have been using them. “Sometimes parents were not convinced when we informed them, questioning whether our sensors were really detecting vaping. There’s a trust gap, largely because parents can’t rely on smell like they would with tobacco,” McCabe observed.
Worryingly, the vape in question during the recent incident was later found to contain Spice, a potent and illegal synthetic drug. The school had already been forced to call ambulances for two other vaping-related emergencies prior to this latest event. “After the pandemic, we noticed more students couldn’t last an hour in lessons and kept asking to go to the toilet,” McCabe revealed. “It turned out they were so addicted, they were sneaking off to vape.”
Medical professionals are raising the alarm about the increasing number of children experiencing severe health problems from vape use. Dr Jayesh Bhatt, respiratory consultant at Nottingham Children’s Hospital, also spoke on the programme, stating the medical community is witnessing a surge in vaping-related injuries among young people. He recounted his first encounter with such a case in 2016, which resulted in a young person needing an artificial lung to survive. “We are seeing both immediate catastrophic lung injuries and worrying medium-term symptoms,” Dr Bhatt explained. “I have never seen these kinds of side effects among children who smoked traditional cigarettes.”
There is a growing concern that children, parents and even some educators underestimate the risks of vaping. Many believe it to be a safe alternative to smoking, while medical evidence suggests significant dangers. Dr Bhatt urged families and schools to take these risks seriously, as his hospital is dealing with an increasing frequency of young patients presenting with serious vape-related injuries.
This incident at St Joseph’s is part of a wider trend, with emergency services reporting a notable rise in ambulance call-outs to schools for vaping emergencies, many of which have led to hospitalisation. The situation has prompted calls for earlier intervention, stronger regulation of vape products, and better education about their dangers in schools.
As the debate continues, the stark reality remains: the growing popularity of vaping among teenagers poses new and significant risks. The response from schools, health professionals, and families will be crucial in reversing what many now identify as the most serious contemporary threat to children’s health within the school environment.