Ms Tan, a 39-year-old mother, first noticed something was wrong when her 18-year-old son began displaying strange behaviour. The student, who has been living with her since her divorce four years ago, became increasingly erratic after he began using Kpod vapes last year.
“He started acting like he wasn’t in his right mind,” Ms Tan told Shin Min Daily News.
When she searched his room, she discovered used vapes that looked nothing like regular e-cigarettes. The devices were semi-transparent and unusually long, marked with skull symbols and the word “poison”.
Her son later admitted these were Kpod vapes, also known as “zombie vapes”. Despite repeated pleas from his mother to quit, he continued vaping.
Ms Tan believes her son obtained the devices through Telegram or from friends. The teen has since shown increasingly erratic behaviour, including collapsing both at home and in public places.
Violent Confrontation at Serangoon Home Ends with Father Being Punched
On 7 Apr 2025, the teen told his mother he was heading to a friend’s house for dinner and a swim. When he failed to return home by nightfall, Ms Tan called him and noticed his speech was slurred.
Suspecting he had vaped again, she used phone-tracking to locate him at a residence in Serangoon. She confronted him and his friend at the gate.
The friend allegedly shoved her and said, “If you keep doing this, your son will never take care of you in the future.”
When Ms Tan accused the friend of supplying vapes to her son, he retorted, “Your son can’t even afford it now.”
Ms Tan called her ex-husband for backup. A scuffle broke out when the father arrived and confronted the friend. The friend reportedly punched the boy’s father. Even the friend’s mother was hit when she tried to intervene.
After discussing the situation, the friend’s parents searched their son’s room and found vape devices. However, they claimed the vapes belonged to Ms Tan’s son.
Teen Found Bleeding While Still Attempting to Vape Despite Collapsed State
Just last week, Ms Tan returned home to find her son lying on the ground with a vape in hand, bleeding from his limbs.
“He was completely dazed, but still trying to refill a new pod. It broke my heart,” she said.
She called an ambulance and the police. Medics tried to advise the teen, but their efforts proved futile. Officers confiscated the vape but could not take further action.
Ms Tan admitted she had been afraid to contact authorities earlier, worried that any fines would fall on her as the parent. “I really don’t have the means to keep paying if this continues,” she explained.
In a desperate attempt to understand her son’s struggle, Ms Tan once grabbed the device from his hand and tried it herself.
“The first puff did nothing,” she recalled. “But by the second, my mind went blank. My body was paralysed. It lasted for about 15 minutes. That’s when I realised how terrifying the zombie vape truly is.”
When her ex-husband took over care duties for a few weeks in June 2025, their son reportedly vaped again and collapsed at his father’s home. A urine test was conducted but returned negative results.
Her son has fallen and bled multiple times both at home and outside, often appearing confused and disoriented due to his addiction. Ms Tan found empty vape cartridges and charging cables during searches of his room.
Ms Tan blames herself for her son’s condition. “Parents will always blame themselves,” she confessed. “Did the divorce affect him? Was I too busy with work?”
Her elder sister said the teen used to be well-behaved and close to the family. She now helps Ms Tan watch over him to prevent further incidents.
Ms Tan described her son as emotionally fragile since the divorce, “living in his own world and constantly longing for friends”.
Would you be jailed for being half-naked in public? Well, the answer will shock you. Seriously. Watch this to the end and you'll understand:
