| Hoppy800 wrote: |
| It also mentions that having pneumothorax before is a risk factor in itself, and since the article mentions that it's a re-occurance, that's not good at all. If he is smoking, he should quit after this, this comes back and could kill him the next time if he doesn't. |
The way it was explained to my brother, it won't kill him, just inconvenience him and cause pain and discomfort. When he had a spontaneous pneumothorax, they told him the stuff in the article. It's more common in tall thin males, it could happen for no reason at all, if it happens a second time, it probably will continue to happen.
His lung was collapsed for two days before he went to see his primary doctor, who told him to go to the ER because he probably had SP, where they put in a chest tube to get the lung to reinflate and sent him home the next day.
The doctors told him that as a healthy young person, he could live a completely normal life with only one lung. If the problem became recurring they might want to do surgery to seal the leaky bleb, worst case scenario: They completely botch the job and he loses the lung and then as he gets old he would probably need an oxygen tank. (The line about botching the surgery was a doctor joke, but his point was that this is not at all a dangerous situation.)
Like has been mentioned before, smoking is prevalent in Japan, so maybe this guy already has reduced lung capacity. He's been in the hospital for a few days, so maybe the lung isn't reinflating properly, but after my experience with the condition, I just don't see it as lethal.
