Marathon Karaoke Session Lands Man in Hospital With a Collapsed Lung

While over-imbibing is the usual culprit behind a fun night out gone wrong, it turns out that too much karaoke can be bad for your health, too. According to Newsweek, a 65-year-old man from eastern China was hospitalized with a collapsed lung after singing 10 high-pitched karaoke songs in a row.

“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,” the man, who was identified only by his last name, Wang, said in a video posted to the Chinese platform PearVideo.

Since Wang had belted out the same tunes plenty of times before, he decided to ignore the pain that he felt in his left lung as he was performing and simply sing through it. After his condition worsened over the next day, Wang was taken to the hospital.

In the same video, Dr. Peng Bin-fei confirmed that the injury was most likely a direct result of the man’s energetic commitment to hitting the high notes, and advised that karaoke enthusiasts should limit their performances to a maximum of two hours. (For everyone's sake.)

A collapsed lung, or pneumothorax, happens “when air leaks into the space between your lung and chest wall. This air pushes on the outside of your lung and makes it collapse,” according to the Mayo Clinic. Medical professionals can suck out the air with a needle or small tube, but the condition can be life-threatening.

Since sometimes a pneumothorax can occur on its own, it’s always a good idea to seek medical attention if you suddenly experience uncharacteristic chest pain or shortness of breath. Often, it’s the result of a blunt-force injury to the chest or damage from a lung disease. Newsweek mentioned a recent pneumothorax case that was caused by yet another perhaps unexpected culprit: electronic cigarettes. Doctors found black spots and a hole in the collapsed lung of a Florida teenager.

Unlike electronic cigarettes, there’s no compelling reason to quit karaoke altogether, as long as you’re doing it safely. But if you feel like your lungs are straining against that High C, maybe pass the microphone off to the nearest soprano.