If there’s an accident that causes a person’s lungs to collapse, how will doctors treat it in an emergency? Do they just stitch it back together?
In: Biology
What you’re describing is called a [pneumothorax (great images at this link)](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/15304-collapsed-lung-pneumothorax). I had a collapsed lung years ago, from a broken rib. The doctors couldn’t (wouldn’t) go in to stitch it up; that would’ve made the problem worse. Instead they cut a hole under my armpit, into my chest cavity, and put in a vacuum hose. (I’m not sure how they re-inflated the lung itself – I was unconscious for that part!)
I was hospitalized for about a week, with that hose gently pulling extra air out of my chest for the first 4-5 days. By that point the hole in my lung had healed enough that it wasn’t leaking air into my chest cavity, and they took out the hose.
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