Pneumothorax and Needle Decompression
Serious chest trauma -- a bullet, a blade, or even a hard enough blow
without any open wound at all -- can let air into the space around a
lung, collapsing it. Because the heart sits in the same chest cavity,
a bad enough pneumothorax does not just make breathing harder -- it
slows circulation too.
Left untreated, the pressure keeps building. A simple pneumothorax can
progress into a tension pneumothorax: severe on both fronts, and
eventually fatal on its own, the same way a stopped heart or stopped
breathing is.
What needle decompression does
needle <target>'s chest
A quick, sharp relief for a chest under tension -- not a fix. It only
helps once the pneumothorax has actually progressed to tension; using
it on a simple pneumothorax does nothing but add another hole. You
must be carrying a decompression needle, and it is consumed on use.
What it does NOT do
The puncture that caused the pneumothorax is still open afterward --
decompression relieves the emergency, it does not close the wound. If
nothing else is done, the pressure can build back up over time. It
also does not repair the lung, add oxygen, close any wound, stop
bleeding, restore blood, or touch any other injury.
When support is needed first
A tension pneumothorax severe enough to crash both breathing and
circulation at once needs both kinds of support running together
before anyone can safely reach it with a needle -- rescue breathing/a
BVM/a ventilator AND CPR/a thumper, not just one. See help
respiratory support and help cpr. None of that support fixes the
pneumothorax itself; only decompression does that.
Treating someone else
A conscious target who has not trusted you can still resist being
treated, same as any other treatment -- see help trust. This is
different from CPR or rescue breathing, which only ever apply to
someone already collapsed and unable to contest anything.
See also:
help medical system
help respiratory support
help cpr
help death and unconsciousness