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Thinking about spending some time at a karaoke bar soon? Be careful! One man in China paid the price for hitting all of those high notes – a trip to the emergency room, and a collapsed lung.
Maybe try something less strenuous for your next outing, like playing a rousing game of poker or an evening of checkers.
The man, who wished to keep his identity a secret (we get why) and goes only by Wang in Chinese media, says that he is a regular at this karaoke bar and has sung the songs numerous times.
That night, however, he was a little too enthusiastic. He admitted to doctors that he had never sung 10 in a row before, and all the songs required Wang to hit pretty high notes.
During his set, he felt a tightness on the right side of his chest and struggled to hit the notes he had previously been hitting. Wang chalked it up to singing too much and returned to his seat to enjoy the rest of the night with his friends.
The next morning, however, the pain was there and even more intense. Wang decided to go into a hospital to see just what was wrong, which is when he was diagnosed by ER doctors as having a collapsed lung.
A collapsed lung also called a pneumothorax, is caused when air escapes the lung and fills in space around the lung. When air gathers between the lung and the chest wall it can cause pain, feelings of tightness, and discomfort.
The air around the lung means that the lung cannot properly inflate when you take a breath. This condition can be life-threatening, so it’s a good thing that Wang sought treatment when he did.
Pneumothorax is normally caused by injury to the lungs or chest, like rib fractures or a knife wound. Poor Wang got one just by feeling the groove.
The ER doctor on call, Peng Bin-Fei, said it was unusual for this to happen after singing so much but it wasn’t unheard of. The doctor recommends that older men not spend more than 2 hours on karaoke at any one time, and to be careful with hitting those high notes.
