Respiratory Case Studies
A member of the "Blue’s" gang was rushed into an emergency room after receiving a knife wound in the left side of his thorax. The diagnosis was pneumothorax and a collapsed lung. Explain exactly a) why the lung collapsed and b) why only one lung (not both) collapsed.
Consider the following : a) Two girls in a high school cafeteria were giggling over lunch, and both accidentally sprayed milk out their nostrils at the same time. Explain in anatomical terms why swallowed fluids (and sometimes solids) can sometimes come out the nose. b) A boy in the same cafeteria then stood on his head and showed he could drink milk upside down without any of it entering his nasal cavity or nose. What prevented the milk from flowing downward into his nose?
Harry,the swimmer with the fastest time on the Springfield college swim team, routinely hyperventilates before a meet, as he says, "to sock some more oxygen into my lungs so I can swim longer without having to breathe." Why is this a false assumption? Secondly, how is Harry jeopardizing not only his time but his life?