why do lungs collapse?
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Your lungs are more or less sealed so that only air from your nose or mouth can enter. If you rupture that seal eg with a broken rib, your lungs will draw in other things like fluid/blood. They no longer can expand with air because they are full of fluid already. Pneumonia or other respiratory conditions can also fill them with fluid and cause them to collapse.
So the whole system works on vacuum. Your lung had what’s called a pleural lining around it which acts as a lubricant. When your diaphragm pulls down it creates vacuum, since it’s a sealed system air comes in your wind pipe. When the diaphragm goes up it forces the air out. So. If you put a hole somewhere else in the system, either from trauma and a rib pokes a hole or from an external puncture (also called a sucking chest wound) then the pleural lining fills with air, collapsing the lung as it fills with more air. Every breath collapses it further.
Speaking from experience as I crashed skiing and my broken rib poked a hole iny lung allowing air to escape into the pleural lining. Literally every breath I was getting closer to death. And yes chest tubes hurt.
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