An essential a part of manhood has at all times been about having the competence to be efficient on the earth — having the breadth of expertise, the savoir-faire, to deal with any scenario you end up in. With that in thoughts, every Sunday we’ll be republishing one of many illustrated guides from our archives, so you’ll be able to hone your manly know-how week by week.

A sucking chest wound happens when the chest cavity is punctured by some international object. Bullets and bits of shrapnel are frequent culprits.

Your lungs encompass delicate sacs that fill with air while you inhale. Your chest cavity, together with your ribs, protects your lungs and maintains an open house for them to develop into. When one thing pierces your chest cavity, exterior air can flood in and trigger your lung to break down. A collapsed lung will depart you gasping, or sucking, for air as your lung tries to battle towards the elevated stress coming in by way of the wound. That stress solely builds as you attempt to breathe tougher.

Sucking chest wounds sometimes trigger blood to foam or bubble close to the wound website. Treating such a wound rapidly is crucial, so it’s best to assume any extreme wound to the chest is a sucking chest wound. Apply therapy instantly and get the injured individual to medical consideration as quickly as attainable. The important thing to therapy is to seal off the chest cavity to forestall exterior air from placing stress on the lungs whereas nonetheless permitting air to flee because the lungs inflate. To perform this, you wish to create a valve that enables air to exit, however not enter, the chest cavity.

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak