[Dramatic sigh] I suppose you're more likely to run into that, with the plague clouds and all.
A pneumothorax and a collapsed lung aren't really the same thing. A pneumothorax is a bubble of air between your chest wall and your lung that collapses part of your lung. They are caused by air leaking out of your lung into your chest, either because of trauma or disease causing it to pop a hole.
Very small ones are left alone. Medium sized ones, they use a syringe or a vacuum to suck the air out. Only if it's very large do they slice you open to glue shut the hole in the lung itself.
Then you just take it easy for a while. And hope it doesn't happen again. Especially if it was caused by disease.
Pneumothorax is the leading cause of death by plague cloud exposure in people who never make it inside, and the fourth in people who have bad helmets or who don't make it to a hospital. Once you're in the hospital, you'll live long enough for something else to kill you.
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Date: 2015-08-07 09:54 pm (UTC)From:A pneumothorax and a collapsed lung aren't really the same thing. A pneumothorax is a bubble of air between your chest wall and your lung that collapses part of your lung. They are caused by air leaking out of your lung into your chest, either because of trauma or disease causing it to pop a hole.
Very small ones are left alone. Medium sized ones, they use a syringe or a vacuum to suck the air out. Only if it's very large do they slice you open to glue shut the hole in the lung itself.
Then you just take it easy for a while. And hope it doesn't happen again. Especially if it was caused by disease.
Pneumothorax is the leading cause of death by plague cloud exposure in people who never make it inside, and the fourth in people who have bad helmets or who don't make it to a hospital. Once you're in the hospital, you'll live long enough for something else to kill you.