PortAdventura: man suffers collapsed lung after ride

[malem]

A man suffered a collapsed lung after riding a Spanish roller coaster, apparently Red Force at PortAdventura Ferrari Land. This was presumably a preexisting condition aggravated by the ride, but the alleged response from the park's first aid is concerning.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brit-20-suffers-collapsed-lung-18956887

[Kenban]

First aid likely had no idea what was going on.  This is the first case of this occurring on a coaster I have ever heard of.

This injury sounds similar to what can occur during diving if you hold your breath.  Basically the air expands in the lungs and has to go somewhere, the expanding air can cause a hole to form in the lung and force air out into the surrounding tissue.

My guess is he inhaled and held his breath, it may not have even been a conscious decision, and I doubt he even realized it occurred.  The change in elevation while sudden is minor so I doubt that is the cause.  So my thinking is it occurred when the train braked at the end the sudden jolt increased the air pressure enough to make a small hole in the lung and force air out into the surrounding tissue.

[disco2000]

58 minutes ago, Kenban said:

First aid likely had no idea what was going on.  This is the first case of this occurring on a coaster I have ever heard of.

This injury sounds similar to what can occur during diving if you hold your breath.  Basically the air expands in the lungs and has to go somewhere, the expanding air can cause a hole to form in the lung and force air out into the surrounding tissue.

My guess is he inhaled and held his breath, it may not have even been a conscious decision, and I doubt he even realized it occurred.  The change in elevation while sudden is minor so I doubt that is the cause.  So my thinking is it occurred when the train braked at the end the sudden jolt increased the air pressure enough to make a small hole in the lung and force air out into the surrounding tissue.

This happened to a very good friend of mine after riding The Beast last year - spent 3 days in the hospital.  It is called spontaneous pneumothorax and apparently tall and skinny people are more susceptible to it, which this person certainly fit that description.  To be clear, people susceptible to this it can happen for no reason at all or it could be a car ride, running, jumping, etc. and may never happen again.  Happening while on a roller coaster is simply wrong place wrong time and was going to happen anyway it just happened to be there.