I reached out to a friend recently on FB. Here is the converstaion:

Me) I haven't seen you post any diving pictures lately, what's up?

Buddy) In Jan of 2011, I suffered a spontaneous pneumothorax, so my diving career is over. It sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it.

Me) Wow, did that happen while diving?

Buddy) Yes and no. It's a long story, but after it happened, I spent a few hours in the Kona ER and had a chest vent sewn on to me for a week. After we flew home, I went to see the doc who mans the local chamber with my dive profiles and he said nothing was abnormal (which I knew because I dive very conservatively, especially when I'm with my son), so he couldn't say it happened as a result of anything I did during a dive, it was really just spontaneous.

Regardless of how or why, I can never dive again without the possibility of a tension pnemo which, as the dive doc described it, I wouldn't survive if I suffered it while diving, even if he was there when I surfaced with all the medical equipment in the world.

Statistically speaking, I still have a pretty good chance of suffering another one - even just sitting here typing! At least if it happens above water, it's not life-ending.

I've never heard of a spontaneous pneumothorax. Have any of you divers and/or doctors ever seen or heard of this?