My 15 year old cross country runner experienced a 25% lung collapse this past week. At this time, repeated x-rays have shown no improvement. He has not had a tube placed. He is having a CT scan Monday and we meet with the doctor on Wednesday. That will be day 9 after the initial collapse (we didn't realize what had happened...he had some shortness of breath and a sore back.) At that time, the doctor said, they would consider a tube if no improvement had occurred. the CT scan is thought to help determine if this will happen again.
Please advise: just how common is this? how dangerous is it for him to run competitively after having this episode? I know the answers can't be 100% but is he riskinig his health/life if he tries to run competitively again?
Many thanks.