Alec Hebblethwaite, 14, suffered a torn esophagus after eating a ham and cheese sandwich (Picture: SWNS)

A teenager was left fighting for his life after his esophagus was torn by a ham and cheese sandwich.

Alec Hebblethwaite, 14, spent 106 days in hospital and was diagnosed with chronic immune system disease eosinophilic esophagitis.

The schoolboy’s mum Kasey Hunter, 35, first noticed something was out of the ordinary lsat April when he ate a cracker during soccer practice and threw up blood.

She took him to the ER where doctors said he had scratched his esophagus and told him to stick to soft foods to give it chance to heal.

But the following month, Kasey took Alec to Walmart between soccer games to grab a snack and he choked on a ham and cheese sandwich.

He ended up in hospital for 106 days on life support (Picture: SWNS)

He was rushed to hospital with chest pain and doctors discovered his esophagus was ripped – but when they tried to fix it with surgery they found that the wound had become infected.

He ended up spending the summer in intensive care, fighting deadly sepsis and having several operations where doctors warned his mom he might not make it.

Finally in November – seven months after Alec’s first trip to the ER – doctors determined that his extreme reaction had been caused by eosinophilic esophagitis.

The rare condition causes white blood cells to build up in the lining of the tube connecting the mouth and stomach, which can lead to tearing and choking.

Alec, a keen footballer, started choking on the sandwich between games (Picture: SWNS)

Now Alec has to stick to soft foods and has cut out rough foods and bread – which is believed to have triggered his previous flare-up – because it can expand and cause irritation.

Mum-of-three Kasey, of Kaiser, Missouri, said: ‘They said that if we had waited 12 more hours before taking him to the hospital he would have died.

‘We thought it was just chest pain he was complaining about but the doctors did a swallow study and found out there was a hole.

‘The doctors said they had never seen it in a kid before. It was very scary.

‘To stand there and look at your kid and there is nothing you can do for them… You just want to take it all away but you’re not able to.

He ended up spending the summer in intensive care, fighting deadly sepsis and having several operations (Picture: SWNS)

‘I had no idea that this could happen. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that crackers and sandwiches would be able to do this.’

After choking on the sandwich on May 21, Alec, who lives with Kasey and her husband, construction worker Matthew, 36, was admitted to Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri.

It was there that doctors tried to perform surgery to repair his esophagus but were forced to delay it after opening his chest to find he was suffering from an infection.

Alec was transferred to Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, Missouri, where he was admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.

He had a chest tube and drain inserted to help get rid of the infection and later had surgery to remove his gallbladder, which was also infected.

He suffered from a rare condition known as eosinophilic esophagitis (Picture: SWNS)

Alec was discharged on September 3 and was diagnosed with the rare condition until two months later.

He said: ‘At first I didn’t know anything was wrong at all – I just felt like I got a bit of the sandwich stuck in my throat.

‘But after that I found it really hard to get up and my throat hurt. I was in a lot of pain.

‘I don’t remember most of my time in hospital but there was a time when I wasn’t able to walk, which was very scary.

‘I knew things like this could happen but I didn’t ever think it would happen to me.’

Alec still goes to the hospital every few weeks for dilation, where a balloon is inserted into the esophagus to stretch it, to make it easier for him to breathe.

To help the family with medical and travel costs, donate at their YouCaring site.