A 65-year-old man from eastern China needed to be hospitalized after an unusually long karaoke session allegedly left him with a serious medical condition known as a collapsed lung.

Identified solely by his surname, Wang, the elderly karaoke enthusiast realized something was wrong when he experienced shortness of breath and sharp pain on the left side of his back, last week, while singing his favorite songs. He Had sung these high-pitched tunes before and never felt any discomfort, but this time was different. He couldn’t reach the high notes and had trouble breathing normally.

Wang told Nanchang News that he chose to ignore his symptoms when he first noticed them, but they worsened after he got home from the karaoke marathon, and he had no choice but to go to the hospital the next morning. Peng Bin-fei, a doctor from emergency department at Nanchang hospital, told Wang that he had suffered a collapsed lung, also known as a pneumothorax, and asked for details as to what might have caused it. Upon learning about his recent karaoke marathon, the doctor concluded that it was the high-pitch singing that caused Wang’s lung to collapse.

Photo: PeterPrill/Pixabay

“The patient suffered from a lung collapse because of the high lung pressure caused by singing high notes,” Dr. Bin-fei told Pear Video. “It’s better not to sing for a period of over two hours.”

Wang admitted that even though he had song these high-note songs before, he had never performed 10 in a row before, and that was what must have caused his lung to collapse.

“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 said.

 

The unusual story of this over-zealous karaoke enthusiasts went viral on Chinese social media, with most commenters expressing their surprise at the possibility of suffering a collapsed lung due to karaoke.

“Never imagined this could really happen, I feel lucky that I have a deep voice,” one person wrote.