Spontaneous Pneumothorax

[gasdiver]

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?

[Sludge]

My cousin suffered one just a month or so before he was going to take Open Water.

Oh, well. That was that.

[Mart]

It happens, and it sucks specially if you're a diver. Long skinny persons around age 15 have the biggest chance of being victims.

[Sludge]

He was tall and skinny and about eighteen.

[TONY CHANEY]

Long skinny persons around age 15 have the biggest chance of being victims.

Not too sure about age, but everyone we have had a the hospital were tall and skinny.

[floridakid]

They are actually more common than what you would think, I have seen a few that needed chest tubes but I have yet had to treat a spontaneous pneumo that was "gonna die in minutes" bad, but they do happen. Like other folks have said the classic spontaneous pneumo is a young, tall, small-framed male.

But don't get me wrong, they are not an every day occurrence. They are far less common than those caused by trauma.

[EEL]

Not too sure about age, but everyone we have had a the hospital were tall and skinny.

Oh Crap...

Is there anything folks can do to lower the risk of this. Diving is very very important to my pursuit of happiness.

Mark (the tall skinny guy)

[floridakid]

Oh Crap...

Is there anything folks can do to lower the risk of this. Diving is very very important to my pursuit of happiness.

Mark (the tall skinny guy)

Not really, it really is fairly rare, especially once you are out of your teen years

[FW]

I had a dive buddy that had one during a dive. We rushed him out, did CPR, called 911, he was transported to a hospital, but died 18 hours later

[Tegg]

I don't have to worry... apparently.