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I've had an spontaneous pneumothorax when I was a teenager. Had to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthesia. The surgeon while cutting my chest asked: "You're sure it is this side, right?", which I confirmed. He then said: "Ok, if you're wrong I'm not going to jail alone."
It's a funny quote, but I'm really not sure what the doctor meant...
The typical way to handle a pneumothorax (without an existing hole in the chest) in pre-hospital care is with a chest decompression needle, which is often a part of a paramedic’s kit: https://www.narescue.com/ars-for-needle-decompression-3-25-i... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoracentesis Would have been much easier than using a coat hanger and silverware if they had it on board, already pre-sterilized…
Thats the typical way to handle a tension pneumo, which is slightly different but highly emergent. It's unlikely the case described was a tension pneumo because of the time period, but it very well could have developed that way, and regardless the treatment should be as useful - however one of the benefits of a needle decompression is that, because the lung has compressed so significantly, you don't have to be too co…
There's hacking and there is _hacking_. My sister is training to be a doctor and she has come to dislike the heavily regulated environment we have here in which doctors are not allowed to do anything of this sort. Now, they also don't usually need to, which is a good think, but after she returned from a year in South America, she misses the on-your-feet thinking, creativity and flexibility she could and had to employ…
I've had an spontaneous pneumothorax when I was a teenager. Had to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthesia. The surgeon while cutting my chest asked: "You're sure it is this side, right?", which I confirmed. He then said: "Ok, if you're wrong I'm not going to jail alone."
How did you get it. Was it a major accident?
I've had an spontaneous pneumothorax when I was a teenager. Had to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthesia. The surgeon while cutting my chest asked: "You're sure it is this side, right?", which I confirmed. He then said: "Ok, if you're wrong I'm not going to jail alone."
How did you get it. Was it a major accident?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How much of a factor is the (relatively) super low air pressure in an airplane at cruising altitude? Does this cause more or less severity wrt the amount of air trapped in the chest?
So i'm not an anaesthetist and therefore I claim no high ground with regard to this rusty attempt at respiratory and gas physiology - When I read it initially I thought - that makes sense, but I just did the equations, and basically the thing you're worried about is that the pocket of air that is outside the lung is going to change volume significantly and lead to the worst case outcome, a tension pneumo. But the vol…
cracks knuckles
"time to open up west's respiratory physiology again"
Interestingly, the surgeon published a post-mortem case report titled "Managing in Flight Emergencies" in the British Medical Journal [1]. The title of the publication makes it seem as if this in-flight surgery with a coat-hanger is a routine occurrence. Remarkable! [1] https://www.bmj.com/content/311/7001/374
> The patient was now comfortable, felt well and we retired to our seats to recover. Eight hours later I was again summoned by the stewardess to see the patient, who had developed more chest pain and dyspnoea. > I found her sitting on the toilet with the underwater seal drain on a high shelf. All the water and air had syphoned out of the bottle into the chest. The crisis resolved when I placed the underwater seal dra…
He's saying that the water bottle was draining fluid from her chest, but she/someone put the bottle on a high shelf, so it drained back into her chest.
This is why you don't immediately leave post-operative patients to take care of themselves.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How did you get it. Was it a major accident?
No, these things just happen for a variety of reasons. Smoking/vaping puts you at higher risk. There's probably other risk factors too.
I've had an spontaneous pneumothorax when I was a teenager. Had to undergo emergency surgery with only local anesthesia. The surgeon while cutting my chest asked: "You're sure it is this side, right?", which I confirmed. He then said: "Ok, if you're wrong I'm not going to jail alone."