This happened to me in college. Driving home from the movies, chest started to hurt on inhale .. I decided to "sleep it off", which obviously didn't work. Went to the ER in the morning. Got the chest tube and spent about a week seeing if it would heal naturally, then they removed the offending part of my lung, and did a mechanical pleurodesis (a procedure that sticks your lung to the chest wall so it can't collapse). All-in, was over two weeks in the hospital, and a good bit of recovery after.
I fit the 5'9", young, male, otherwise healthy group described here.
I fit the 5'9", young, male, otherwise healthy group described here.