Mariska Hargitay and her collapsed lung

A collapsed lung is very painful. The acute pain comes on suddenly and had been described as having a knife stuck into your side. As a nurse, I’ve seen patients with collapsed lungs and I’ve seen how panicked they can be when they feel the pain and may find it difficult to breathe.

Having a collapsed lung is not only dangerous for the obvious reason (limited breathing), but depending on the cause of the collapse, there’s a danger that the other one can collapse as well.

News reports say that 44-year-old actress Mariska Hargitay was recently rushed to the hospital with a collapsed lung. They don’t say how it happened.

If you look up "collapsed lung" on a search engine, you’ll see there are two terms that are used: atelecetasis and pneumothorax. They aren’t quite the same thing.

Atelectasis is the term used when a fully expanded lung collapses, but pneumothorax means that there is air in the pleural cavity (in the chest) that pushes on the lungs, resulting in atelectasis. So, if you have a pneumothorax, it can cause atelectasis, but if you have atelectasis, it doesn’t mean you have a pneumothorax.

What can cause a collapsed lung? Sometimes, it can just happen, without a particular cause. But the major causes include:

• A mass or plug of mucus that was inhaled
• Something pressing on the lung, like pneumothorax, fluid, or blood
• Trauma, injuries, surgery to the chest
• Swelling of the abdomen, which can push up on the lungs
• Lack of surfactant, the coating of the alveoli (the tiny air sacs where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged)
• Scarring of the lungs
• Smoking

Believe it or not, people like fighter jet pilots are also at risk – the high speeds at which they travel can cause a collapsed lung.

Symptoms:

When I had pleurisy, at one point I was convinced I had a collapsed lung (before I was diagnosed properly) because the pain in the side of my chest was excruciating. That’s one of the symptoms, especially if the collapse is very sudden. Other symptoms are:

• Fast, shallow breathing
• Shortness of breath
• Looking bluish or very pail
• Irregular heartbeat
• Drop in blood pressure

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Tags: pain blog, actress mariska hargitay, collapsed lung, atelectasis, pneumothorax, mariska hargita collapsed lung