Question: My daughter, 39 years of age, has been in the hospital for the last 26 days for spontaneous pneumothorax. The first week, she had a suction tube inserted, and, towards the end of the week, it seemed that maybe the condition had resolved itself. The tube was pulled, and, within 24 hours, she was back in (a different) hospital in another city with the same condition. A tube was inserted, withdrawn after a few days, lung collapsed, and another tube was inserted. After a day or two, it was decided to go in robotically and repair all the blebs. That done, the tube was again pulled, the lung collapsed, and then the surgeon went in laparoscopically and checked her previous work, which looked OK. While in there, she "roughed up" wall of the thorax to make it heal to the lung (plural lining?). Then inserted two suction tubes. After several days, she pulled one of the tubes, and again, air had entered the thoracic space to some small degree. She is waiting until tomorrow to pull the second tube . My question is, is there any other avenue by which air may be infiltrating the thorax other than blebs, leaky tube wounds (all of which have been gone over with a fine-toothed come--even clipped and stitched)? Could air be getting into the thorax via a small break or crack in the trachea or bronchial tubes where they join/branch, etc.? 26 days to fix a pneumothorax is a long time, don't you agree? We're very concerned. thanks