‘A Bizarre Pickleball Accident Saved My Life!’ Woman’s Freak Injury Leads to Cancer Diagnosis

Linn was alarmed by the pain. Expecting to have broken a rib, Linn went to her doctor for an X-ray. The scan revealed a much bigger issue.

"The doctor came out. He said, 'there's good news. There's no breaks, no fractures.' He said, 'however, how long have you had this inch spot on your lung?'"

Linn immediately called her husband: "I said, 'good news, no breaks. Bad news, I have cancer." Linn suspects that the diagnosis was even more overwhelming for her husband than it was for her. "He didn't say anything. He was in shock," she said.

With traditional tools, Linn's biopsy procedure would have carried a significant risk of collapsing her lung. "Older technology that we utilizedwhich would be sticking a needle from the outside in with CAT scan guidance, tends to have a higher rate of lung collapse," said her surgeon, Dr. Ryan Levy, chief of thoracic surgery at UPMC Passavant.

Instead, Dr. Levy used an instrument called the Monarch Robotic Bronchoscope, which enables surgeons navigate through the lung using an interface that resembles a video game controller. "It's a very small camera with a very small opening on the end of it, and we can get to areas of the lung in these very, very small airways," Dr. Levy explained. "It's pretty amazing. You can actually see these tumors with this little, microscopic camera."

After the biopsy, Linn was officially diagnosed with lung cancer. Even though she was not a smoker, she had to have the top of her right lung removed. Lung cancer often only presents symptoms after it has reached advanced stages, so Linn's pickleball accident might have actually saved her life. "We call it the fortuitous fall," she said.

Linn is currently going through chemotherapy. Her final round of chemo will be on Thursday, and in March, she'll have another PET scan to evaluate her need for further treatment. Linn has faced her disease with bravery, and she has endless trust in her support network. "I have a lot of faith in my doctors. I have a lot of faith in the science. And I have a lot of faith, period," she said.

Causes of Lung Cancer in Non-Smokers

Despite some promising drops in mortality rates, lung cancer still kills more Americans every year than any other form of cancer. And while most of those diagnosed are or were smokers, one in five individuals will have never touched a cigarette or vape in their lifetime.

"Some lung cancers are from unknown exposure to air pollution, radon, or asbestos," Dr. Raja Flores, system chair of thoracic surgery at  Mount Sinai, previously told SurvivorNet. "We also see more never-smokers with lung cancer who have a family history of it."

There is a good deal of research on the causes of lung cancer in those who have never smoked. Most researchers agree that the likeliest cause of the disease in non-smokers is environmental factors.

According to the World Health Organization, radon is the second-leading cause of lung cancer, responsible for anywhere from 3 to 16% of cancer cases depending on the levels present in a given area.

Smokers, meanwhile, are 25 times more at risk from radon than non-smokers.

Breathing secondhand smoke is another lung cancer risk for non-smokers. According to the American Cancer Society, about 7,000 adults die of lung cancer from breathing secondhand smoke each year.

Air pollution is also known to cause some lung cancers. At the same time, other factors seen in non-smoking patients diagnosed with the disease include a family history and having previously been diagnosed with HIV or AIDs.

If You Have Lungs, You Can Get Lung Cancer

Lung Cancer Symptoms

Lung cancer is the second-most common cancer diagnosis in the US behind breast cancer.

It can be difficult to diagnose because the disease does not have many symptoms in its early stages.

Individuals who experience any of the following symptoms should consult their doctor or a medical professional:

• persistent coughing
• coughing up blood
• frequently winded to struggling to breath
• sudden and unexplained fatigue
• rapid weight loss
• sharp pains when breathing

What Happens When You've Been Newly Diagnosed With Lung Cancer

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