Heart patient coughs up intact cast of bronchial tree - photo

This one is making the viral rounds, accompanied by dubious "man coughs up lung" descriptions.

Last week, The New England Journal of Medicine stepped in to set the record straight: it's real, and it's a coughed-up cast of a bronchial tree, from a 36-year old man with chronic heart failure. Kinda like a blood clot.

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During an extreme bout of coughing, the patient spontaneously expectorated an intact cast of the right bronchial tree. The right bronchial tree consists of three segmental branches in the upper lobe (blue arrows), two segmental branches in the middle lobe (white arrows), and five segmental branches in the lower lobe (black arrows).

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https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...chial_tree.jpg

More: New England Journal of Medicine - Cast of the Right Bronchial Tree

I showed the picture to my wife (a 40+ year nurse) and she says she saw a much smaller sample coughed up by a patient years ago, just nothing as large and important as this one. I would have sworn it was a fake, but I'm no medical professional.

That must have been a cough of epic proportions and felt Real Good to get that out of there! I have atomic sneezing attacks, even broke a rib once, but this is next level.

I broke my jaw once gritting my teeth. Amazing how the body works.

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Originally Posted by Jon

This one is making the viral rounds, accompanied by dubious "man coughs up lung" descriptions.

Last week, The New England Journal of Medicine stepped in to set the record straight: it's real, and it's a coughed-up cast of a bronchial tree, from a 36-year old man with chronic heart failure. Kinda like a blood clot.





More: New England Journal of Medicine - Cast of the Right Bronchial Tree

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And the CDC says Masks will stop Covid... Yeah Right! and if vaccinated you are protected... Right again!!!
So how come Biden among the first to be vaccinated came down with Covid, more than once!

Umm.... If that, is the thing clogging this guy's Bronchi....

Someone needs to read up on "Boyle's Law".

How in the world did the patient inhale enough air to pressurize the alveoli,
to a pressure strong enough to expel this "clot"

To push the air in and out, your diaphragm and other muscles help create pressure inside your chest.
When you breathe in, your muscles create a negative pressure — less than the atmospheric pressure that helps suck air in.
When you breathe out, the lungs recoil and return to their normal size.
When you cough the airways constrict, until the air you just inhaled is pressurized by the diaphragm,
then the constriction is suddenly let loose and a cough is created.


This professor, explains it well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNadr6bGEMU


If you understood the video, this should now be clearer

If the one Bronchi is clogged shut, as the photo shows, He's Not gonna be able to inhale a cubic centimeter
of air, ( 1cc) let alone enough to fill a lung. a deep breath can reach

The airway to the lung is split just below the collarbone. So, air going into one lung cannot get behind a clog in the other lung.

Attachment 43454

If he can't breathe at all, (both lungs blocked) he'll pass out from lack of Oxygen
With lack of Oxygen the heart can't operate and he'll have a Myocardial Infarction
(aka a Heart attack) and be unable to cough or even breathe on his own.

Then, CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) will be needed to get air and blood flowing again

If not given medical attention within 10 minutes ...brain damage is likely to occur.



toolkribkeeper
and Ex Medical Instructor.