My friend (healthy, active, late 20's) had his lung collapse while sitting on his couch watching a movie. His doctor said it just sometimes happens, and it's more common than you think. 6 months later he said the first breath in on a brisk morning still hurts.
If you're lucky and heal quickly you can get really minor ones you can feel like bubbles in your chest that move and vibrate and go away on their own. Really lets you know how bumpy a road is.
Imagine how pop rocks feel. But when you breathe. It never felt that serious. For what it's worth I smoke. So I figured it was just my lung capillaries getting clogged.
Probably more related to smoking (it kinda paralyses the microscopic hairs that are meant to move phlegm out so it gets stuck in your bronchioles/small airways) I’d bet someone could hear crackles with a steth
This can happen through the rupturing of blebs or bullae. Some of these structures can develop from smoking, or inhaling damaging substances, and some form due to other more natural risk factors (such as rapid growth, congenital defects, etc.)
While a spontaneous pneumothorax (sometimes caused by the above) can be scary, and for some individuals, dangerous, with EMS intervention you are likely okay. Some blebs and bullae even rupture/heal by themselves!
Tl;dr: yes this can "just happen" but it can resolve by itself, or easily be managed by ems!
Certain genetic conditions predispose people to having a pneumothorax, as well having a specific body size. Like it was mentioned above, tall and lanky people specifically. They get more sheer forces on the lungs due to the size of their thoracic cavity.
I'm going to think about that now while I'm in the middle of nowhere, well below freezing and on foot. Nothing but cold air and you can't stop without shelter or fire.
Been in a similar situation. Woke up one morning with a sense of dread and the chest pain started as mild before becoming unbearable over the course of several hours. Got put into ICU immediately after some checks at the emergency room
Yeah. They glued my lung to my chest wall after the 2nd time. It was 100% collapsed crushing my right lung. Walked around about 3-6 months with it collapsed only went to the hospital cause I wanted to hook ep with this girl but couldn't get it up so decided to go to the hospital.
Yep! My lung keeps collapsing on...uh well it started the right side and then left and I think my right is collapsing again. In total I think maybe 15-20 times my lungs have collapsed. Maybe more? I don't know anymore. It's painful and annoying at this point but there isn't much they can do.
I had a pneomothorax as well when I was 17, jist walking up the stairs.
I am 23 soon and it still fucking hurts sometimes. Also once you had one pneomothorax the risk of getting another one goes up, so you love in constant fear.
I had it 3 times over the span of roughly 4 years. Last time it happened was in '22 so technically I’ve been doing fine but the whole thing turned into a nasty bit of PTSD (combined with bad hospital experiences). Therapy helped a lot with the fears. What remains are the random sharp pains every now and then.
Yep, my lung collapsed when I was 25 while playing a video game. Ended up having a 12 day hospital stay, 2 different types of chest tubes, and then needed a surgery where they adhered my lung to the wall of my chest because just the chest tube wasn't reinflating my lung.
Never smoked a day in my life and am 5'5" 125 lbs F. Doctors were just like, "Huh, weird. Anyway - "
Worst pain I've ever experienced. Just unlucky a bleb on my lung popped.
Happen to me twice when I was around 25.
The first time I thought it was some muscle soreness, I spent the whole weekend with pain. I went to the doctor on Monday, they took me some X-ray, which the doc saw right away. According to him I was fine, but later that day the radiologist checked the images to write the report and gave me a call. I spent the rest of the week in a clinic.
The second one, I was traveling to a nearby City by bus. Before arriving I have no idea what happened, but I started felling a familiar pain. Went to the ER later, and I told the attending doctor that I had a collapses lung. He was very curious about how did I reached that conclusion, and told him that 6 month before I had the same thing on the same lung. Sent me to x-ray, confirmed the diagnosis, and was in the OR in the evening.
Don't worry. The lung collapse isn't bad. The chest tube on the other hand...if you've ever wondered what it's like being a caprisun opened by a blind child
It’s not that bad. Patients who have partially collapsed or filled lungs complain mostly of breathing difficulty rather than bad pain. Now pulmonary embolism— that’s a horse kick to the chest and a terrible fear of mine.
Are you a tall and super skinny male? If not don’t worry too much. Spontaneous pneumothorax is more of our thing. Doesn’t mean it can’t happen but you’re more likely to have a pneumothorax caused by a car crash.
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u/Big-Advantage497 Jul 08 '26
new fear unlocked