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To: reed13k
The breathing muscles are the diaphragm and intercostal muscle between the ribs.

From what I quickly read, it looks like hearts and kidneys are not generally reattached to nerves which cause some problems like higher resting pulse and change in response to exercise. But then I'm not a doctor and didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express.

11 posted on 02/18/2018 7:46:17 PM PST by KarlInOhio (I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own.)
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To: KarlInOhio; reed13k
"The breathing muscles are the diaphragm and intercostal muscle between the ribs."

I recently read some interesting information about chest wounds.

As pointed out, the diaphragm muscles are responsible for breathing and are not part of the lungs.

The movement of the diaphragm enlarges the volume of the chest cavity. This creates a negative pressure outside the lungs which causes air to be drawn into the lungs.

When the diaphragm relaxes, this causes a positive pressure which pushes air out of the lungs.

This mechanism is subject to problems if a person should suffer a chest wound which penetrates to the chest cavity outside the lungs. When the diaphragm attempts to pull air into the lungs, it will also pull air through the chest wound, partially filling the chest cavity outside the lungs.

Because some of the air drawn in is inside the chest cavity but outside the lungs, the amount of air drawn into the lungs is decreased.

When the diaphragm then relaxes, air is pushed out of the lungs and MAY also be pushed out of the chest wound. If this was all that happened, that would be bad enough and the wounded person would be getting less air when they breathe.

Unfortunately, when the diaphragm relaxes, some of the air which was inside the chest cavity but outside the lungs will remain. When the person nexts inhales, they will once again draw air into the lungs and some more air into the chest cavity but outside the lungs.

The long term result can be that eventually the chest cavity is full of air and the lungs may collapse. Even if the wound seems to involve just one lung, this mechanism can collapse both lungs and the person my die of suffocation.

The first aid for such a chest wound is to seal the wound tightly so that air is not allowed to flow into the person's chest. If there is a sucking sound associated with the wound, that doesn't necessarily mean that the person is getting more air. It may simply mean that air is being drawn in which will render the lungs inoperable.

14 posted on 02/18/2018 8:33:38 PM PST by William Tell
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