One Direction: Teenage girl screams so hard at concert her lungs collapse

Patient's chest and neck heard crackling after air bubbles escape into tissue just under her skin

One Direction were performing for fans in Texas (file pic) (2015 Getty Images)

A teenage girl who attended a One Direction concert screamed so hard that doctors believe her lungs collapsed.

The 16-year-old was struggling with shortness of breath on the morning after the gig and was taken to a hospital.

The patient had no cough, sore throat or history of lung conditions and doctors noted “no respiratory distress”.

But they did find one unusual symptom – her skin made a crackling sound when pressure was applied to her neck and chest.

The symptom, called “subcutaneous crepitus”, was a sign air bubbles had escaped into the tissue right underneath the skin and was popping under the pressure.

An X-ray also confirmed both her lungs had slightly collapsed, and air was trapped between the organs and her chest wall.

Just one symptom is considered rare, but a “combination of all three diagnoses has yet to be described in medical literature”, the doctors noted in a report, which was published in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.

The team found nothing abnormal when the patient was put through a CT scan. They guessed that the girl, who had type 1 diabetes, may have torn her respiratory tract due to laboured breathing during a period of low blood sugar.

But blood tests showed this was not the case.

The patient was kept at the hospital for observation and given extra oxygen to help the lungs recover, but was soon fine to return home.

Lead doctor Mack Slaughter Jr said he thought it was possible that a tiny hole somewhere in her respiratory tract opens only when enough force is applied, the type of force that could be emitted by screaming at a concert. The hole would then close again.

Dr Clare Morrison, from MedExpress, told the Huffington Post: “I cannot think of another time when lungs have collapsed due to screaming at a pop concert - but there’s a first time for everything.

“So it’s important not to panic and for parents to get too judicious.”