An excited teenage girl overwhelmed at being so close to her heroes screamed so hard at a One Direction gig her lungs collapsed.
The 16-year-old from Texas was rushed to the emergency room, unable to breathe, the morning after the concert.
She was suffering no chest pain or other signs something could be wrong. The mega fan had no history of lung conditions and made no complaints of a sore throat or cough.
Baffled medics were told she began to suffer her symptoms after screaming her head off at the concert the night before.
After examining her, doctors noticed an unusual popping noise under her skin after pressing on her chest and throat.
An X-ray confirmed their suspicions.
Air had escaped from the girl’s lungs and made its way into other parts of her body.
It had become lodged there and when the doctors pressed on her skin the air bubbles underneath popped, causing the crackling sound.
Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas diagnosed the teen with a spontaneous “small bilateral pneumothoraces,” which is a slight collapse of both lungs. The case study was recently published in The Journal of Emergency Medicine.
That combined with the air escaping into her chest cavity and behind her throat, were diagnosed as three separate problems.
In the report, they note the underlying health problems that can cause these three conditions including acute asthma, respiratory infection and violent vomiting.
But, their patient had no history of any of these potential underlying causes.
Instead, the doctors led by Dr. J. Mack Slaughter and Dr. Lynn Roppolo, wrote: “We report a case of these three conditions in a young female with no known underlying lung problems that presented after forceful screaming.”
And while it’s rare to be diagnosed with any of the three conditions with no past history, the medics said it’s rarer still for the three to all happen at once.
They added: “The combination of all three diagnoses has yet to be described in medical literature.”
The medics said this was an “extraordinary” case, adding shouting had only ever been linked to such an injury in a “handful of case reports.”
The report goes on to suggest that while weightlifting, diving and military flying have all been known to cause spontaneous lung collapse, screaming at pop concerts should now be added to that list.
The 16-year-old was given 100 percent oxygen and was admitted into the hospital for observation.
After a second X-ray the following day the girl was discharged with no further problems.