Connor Misko
Contributing Writer
Health plays an essential role in student success and well-being. College students are expected to be prepared and ready for the academic challenges that they must face along with the physical ones.
However, what about the challenges that simply no one can expect? How can ESU help students overcome those?
ESU junior Erik Ecklund had quite the health scare on Oct. 4. After going to the hospital for a pain in his chest, he realized that his lung had partially collapsed while he was in class. Ecklund was hospitalized for 15 days and underwent several operations in order to recover.
“I had pain in my left chest that felt like pressure radiating through my back. I was short of breath and fatigued,” Ecklund said. “So I did what any reasonable person would do in that situation: waited an hour.”
Ecklund left class and made the trek to the ER, unaware that his lung had collapsed just an hour prior. Then he took a chest X-ray which showed the big bubble of air that was keeping his left lung collapsed.
Ecklund’s situation is a ghastly reminder that health complications can strike without warning and can carry hefty risks.
Health and Wellness offers a variety of programs and materials for students to prioritize their health on campus, and to help protect against situations like Ecklund’s. The Coordinator of Wellness Education and Prevention, Kayla Simon, gave insight on how ESU can better prepare and advise students with their health.
“Health and Wellness is working on expanding our reach and informing students about the services we offer,” Simon said.
Any student that needs non-emergency medical attention can go to the ESU Student Health Center facility located at LVHN ExpressCare, 200 East Brown St. in East Stroudsburg.
“Many preventative services are completely free to ESU students (like STI testing, pregnancy tests, some vaccines, etc.),” Simon continued. “For students wanting to prevent illness or overcome stress, I would recommend following @cdcgov on Instagram for general health and wellness tips, as well as @esuwellness and @esurec for ways to stay healthy on campus.”
Ecklund’s case was a rarity, but students still should know the resources ESU provides to help them mitigate these risks in the future.
Ecklund added that the cause of the bubble forming was a bleb. According to the National Library of Medicine, a bleb is a small gas-containing space in the flesh between the lungs and chest. It was approximately 0.8 inches (2 centimeters) in size that grew on the top of his left lung.
“It’s like a bubble on a tire, but on my lung,” he described. “That bleb burst, letting a 7-centimeter bubble of air (approximately 2.8 inches) into my thoracic cavity.”
The actual reason the bleb formed is not known. Ecklund was told by the doctors that tall, thin males and people that smoke, which includes vaping, are at a greater risk. While other chronic issues may exasperate this problem, according to thoracics.org, blebs may also appear in young people with no outstanding health issues.
“They had me sign for the insertion of a small chest tube which would go into my side between my ribs, and then up into the top of my thoracic cavity. The point of that was to vacuum out the air bubble.”
The surgery was a success, but not without its complications.
“The little tube wasn’t actually enough. They tried repositioning it a couple times to better vent the air, but no dice. Then they installed a larger tube.”
According to Ecklund, the larger tube was big enough to fit his entire pinky finger in. Installing the second tube did not go as well as the first one. “It was very painful. I had double the pain meds on board.”
The lung did not heal from the bleb on its own. The last surgery would be to remove the bleb from the lung.
“They put the biggest needle I’ve ever seen in person into an artery in my arm via my wrist,” he said. “They put a camera through the hole that was already there, and they made a new hole for a scissors/stapler hybrid thing to come in and snip off the bleb and staple the hole closed.”
Eklund’s collapsed lung story can end on a breath of fresh air. The surgery was successful with no further complications. He is recovering well and hopes to return to classes Tuesday, Oct. 22.
Students with any questions or concerns related to their health and wellness on and off campus can feel free to contact ksimon6@esu.edu for advice.