Chinese man’s lung collapses after ‘attempting to hit a high note during an intense KARAOKE session’
- The 65-year-old man had sung at least ten songs in a row, media reports
- He became short of breath and had chest pains after his ‘exciting’ session
- Doctors said the pressure led to his lung puncturing and it could have been fatal
A Chinese man’s lung collapsed after he attempted to belt out a high note during an intense karaoke session.
The 65-year-old, known only as Wang, sang ten high-pitched songs in a row before the incident, local media reports.
He said he didn’t hold back because he felt ‘excited’ while singing his favourite tunes, which he didn’t name.
But soon, Wang, from Nanchang county, the capital of Jiangxi province, became breathless and started suffering with chest pain.
Doctors at a hospital’s emergency department found his lung had collapsed, due to the pressure created in the chest from singing.
The unfortunate event is not unheard of – in 2017, a One Direction fan suffered the same fate after screaming too loud during a concert.
Wang told the Chinese video site PearVideo: ‘I was very excited in the heat of the moment’
Wang told the Chinese video site PearVideo: ‘I was very excited in the heat of the moment and after singing a few songs with very high notes, I found myself having breathing difficulties.’
Wang had sung the set of songs many times before, and so his symptoms were unusual.
He decided to ignore the discomfort at that time, but the pain worsened after he went back home, according to the South China Morning Post, a Hong Kong-based English newspaper.
When he visited the emergency room the next day, tests including a chest X-ray revealed the truth.
The doctor said the mishap occurred due to ‘the high lung pressure caused by singing high notes’.
A collapsed lung is medically known as pneumonthorax, which usually occurs when the lung is punctured and air escapes into the chest cavity.
Leaks of air from the lungs is more common in people with a lung condition such as asthma or cystic fibrosis.
But it can occur in people who are otherwise completely healthy, and it is not clear whether Wang had any pre-existing lung disease.
Fortunately, Wang is recovering after receiving medical treatment.
Amateur singers have been advised they should not sing for more than two hours at a time if they want to avoid similar problems.
After the video went viral, reaching more than 100million views on social media, doctors waded in on the topic.
Peng Bin-fei, a doctor from the emergency department at Nanchang hospital, told PearVideo that this condition could prove life-threatening.
He said: ‘The patient suffered from a lung collapse because of the high lung pressure caused by singing high notes.
‘It’s better not to sing for a period of over two hours.’
Two years ago, a 16-year-old girl in Texas suffered a collapsed lung after screaming too loud at a One Direction concert the night before.
Writing in the Journal of Emergency Medicine, doctors said singing as a cause of pneumothorax had only once before been recorded in literature.
Weight-lifting, diving and military flying were all mentioned as potential causes of spontaneous pneumothorax by the medics.