My son, who was 16 at the time, had a Spontaneous Pneumothorax on July 28, 2006 - took him to the ER and was told he had "a collapsed lung and that a chest catheter was required, then laproscopic surgery to repair the left lung...chest catheter was inserted, I could hear my son screaming from the waiting room; two days later the surgery was done, my son left the hospital and returned to DR every week for a chest x-ray; after four weeks we were told he was healing fine and did not need to be seen for eight weeks - my son is into high risk sports such as snowboarding, down hill bike racing, and sky diving, he was told he could do everything but the sky diving until the eight week visit. Well, on the day after the four week visit he was playing frisbee and felt something wrong, next day he tells me his lung is collapsed, we go to the ER and sure enough the lung is collapsed again, again a chest catheter is inserted, this time under "twilight sedation" and unbelievably enough he is sent home, with chest catheter, and told to return in a week. We contact the best DR's in NYC and ask for the best lung doc - we are referred to a surgeon in Poughkeepsie, NY and go and see him the day before we are to return to the original DR. What we are told is devastating...the chest catheter has caused a lung infection and is removed ASAP - my son is hospitalized and we are possibly looking at major surgery and a pleuridisis (which is the adhering of the lung to the chest wall - extremely painful. My son sits in the hospital for days (meanwhile missing his senior year of high school and his 17 Birthday) result is first doctor punctured his lung with BOTH CHEST CATHETERS AND CAUSED MAJOR COLLAPSE only a small fist of a lung was operating on the left lung and a large proteinaceous peel had formed due to infection on his lung - six hours of surgery later he survived. My son spent 26 days in the hospital on Epidural Fentanyl. It was truly horrific, after leaving the hospital he could not return to school until late January (he was hospitalized Sept. 5th, and was only able to snowboard in March. His surgeon told him he was good to go, because he believed it was truly a spontaneous pnuemothorax gone horribly wrong. (Hospital records prove that the two chest caths. punctured the lung). Unfortunately in January of 2008 my son told me his right lung the "good lung" was collapsed - off to the ER truly expecting anything but a collapse I am proven wrong and sure enough the right lung is at a 15% collapse with two "blebs" on the apex and the diaphragm...hospitalized for four days, CT-Scan first day, chest x-rays every day, CT-scan last day and he his released...NO CHEST CATHETER...NO LAPROSCOPIC SURGERY...NO MAJOR SURGERY...March of 2008 - collapse has healed, "blebs" are same, and we are told by the surgeon from Vassar that the original surgery and chest catheters were "harmful and wrong". We are also told that my son has a congenital condition were he will have to worry about his right lung collapsing for the rest of his life but most significantly a possibility in the next 10 years (18-28 years-of-age). So just this week my son wanted to jump, I of course said NO NO NO - his surgeon, who I have the greatest respect for said in sic "Go ahead and jump, have fun, and don't forget you have an appointment in September" Sorry my story was so long but if anyone that has experienced a Pneumo and would like to speak to me or my son please don't hesitate to contact me at
[email protected], also if you are currently looking at surgery or have been told you need a chest tube PLEASE GET A SECOND OPINION BEFORE YOU CONSIDER ANY PROCEDURE!!!!!!!!!!! My son wishes we had and I will never forgive myself for not doing so! Sorry again for such a long story I only hope we helped someone. Thanks!
