First Aid: Sucking Chest Wound
When someone has an abdominal puncture, it can let air into their chest cavity, collapsing a lung. This is bad. If your lungs can’t expand, you can’t breathe, and then you die. It’s known as a sucking chest wound.
In order to provide first aid for this injury we will need the following:
- First Aid Kit: Air-tight, or occlusive, dressing & medical tape.
- McGuyver: Anything plastic or non-porous. Think cellophane wrap or tin-foil. WWII U.S. Army field books recommended using the cellophane off your pack of cigarettes. You’ll also need something sticky to create an air-tight seal between the dressing and the skin around the wound. Look for things like chewing gum, caulk, duct tape or vaseline.
Procedure:
- Call for help.
- Place your occlusive dressing over the wound.
- Seal the dressing on three sides. This creates a one-way valve that will let air escape the abdomen through the hole, but suction trying to draw air into the wound will pull the dressing against it, sealing the chest cavity and allowing the victim’s lung to expand normally.
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2 opinions for First Aid: Sucking Chest Wound
john
Jun 10, 2007 at 11:07 pm
When I first saw the vacuum cleaner on this page
about Sucking Chest Injuries, I assumed that it would appear somewhere in the information as a
POSSIBLE TREATMENT DEVICE. I was obviously
appalled at that possibility since I could see some
unthinking but panicing person applying the suction to the chest injury site with disasterous or fatal results.
I would STRONGLY ADVISE YOU to immediately remove that graphic from this page. If something
can go horribly wrong it probably will. I’ll check back to see if you have done so. Perhaps a picture of a “flapper valve” type dressing would be better?
Sgt Casey
Jan 7, 2008 at 5:50 am
This article should include how to position the patient. Once the make-shift valve is in place, they definitely should not be laying on their back.
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