When in a house filling with smoke is it better to hold your breath so as not to inhale smoke or breath heavily to inhale any oxygen you can?
In: Biology
Avoid breathing it as much as possible. Many deaths post-fire rescue come from smoke inhalation where the smoke causes scarring on the breathing pathway and lungs. This can cause the passage way to close which is why we intubate (jam a tune in there) to keep it open when you see signs of inflammation.
Even if you think you are fine after getting out of a fire, it is important to have your airway checked and this is a reason you see rescuers keeping the victims hanging around or taking people who look fine to the hospital.
Everything’s all “thumbs up” and next thing you know, you’re carting someone off to go get crike’d, because someone was too dumb or busy to check an airway and intubate. A cricothyrotomy is there you cut the front of the throat open to put a breathing tube when the air passage has been obstructed.
Movies love it because it is dramatic. Before anyone gets excited, there are vital blood vessels near enough that can make it dangerous without experience.
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