Twenty-one-year-old Olivia's lung burst the day after her birthday. It can happen to anyone.
We associate a punctured lung with injury. But twenty-three-year-old Olivia has already experienced this four times. The first time, when she was unwrapping her gifts for her 21st birthday. She published her story to raise awareness about pneumothorax. And warned others.
She never smoked, never vaped, and was like any other young girl. At this age, you don't even expect a heart attack, yet her first symptoms were just like that. After a x-ray, she was diagnosed with a collapsed lung.
"Doctors say there is no specific cause - I don't smoke nor do I have health problems, I am just unlucky,”
she recently told to the website needtoknow.co.uk. She described that the pain she felt was more like a heart attack and she was very confused. However, the examination revealed a different problem.
An unexpected diagnosis also requires that Olivia be vigilant about her medical findings
In addition to trauma, pneumothorax can occur with some lung diseases or as a result of heavy smoking. No one expected this diagnosis in such a young and otherwise healthy girl, so Olivia also encountered initial underestimation of her condition. Because the doctor misread her x-ray, they even sent the girl home. She returned with the report that her condition was not improving, and she herself saw on her x-ray that her lung was damaged. In fact, she had taken a photo of her lung x-ray. This most likely saved her life at that moment. The hospital subsequently apologized to her.
But the suffering was not over.
Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs suddenly
Olivia was also surprised by what the doctors found. Spontaneous pneumothorax occurs when air enters the cavity between the lungs and the chest wall, and the accumulated air then causes pressure on the lung and pain when inhaling. Symptoms usually appear suddenly. Which also happened to the girl.
Seven months later it happened again
The girl had a chest drain, which was supposed to relieve the pressure on her lungs, but seven months later the situation repeated. She therefore underwent the same treatment. The third collapse was almost a year later and approximately the same time she suffered a minor fourth collapse. If the problem recurs, she will have to undergo surgery. For now, she has refused because she wants to get even more in order after the problems she has experienced.
Her lungs are currently working at 80% and a major danger for her is a cold, to which she is more prone due to her health condition.
During the second lung collapse, she was really in trouble. When it happened the day before New Year's Eve, she was at her boyfriend's. She was talking to his mother and suddenly she just got out of breath. At that moment, she knew the situation was repeating. The doctors confirmed it.
"My lungs collapsed to 5% capacity, so they were smaller than male testicles, they were tiny,"
she described her situation.
She decided to spread awareness
She decided to spread awareness in this regard on TikTok and social networks. In a video shared on TikTok, she said:
"I didn't know the lungs could collapse until mine did."
As she herself states, be aware of the symptoms, which include:
- Sudden shortness of breath
- Sharp chest pains
- Pressure on the chest
- Deep pain when laughing or coughing
And as Olivia herself states, it can happen to anyone, even though it is a very rare complication and she herself never had any apparent external reasons to suffer from lung damage. Yet it happened. At this moment, she focuses more on her life, work, and is glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel. In terms of risk, only smaller pneumothoraxes and possible surgery.
Source: author's text, the-sun.com, needtoknow.co.uk
