cpr on a collapsed lung

CPR wouldn't be used unless the guy's heart stopped. I googled "gsw lung treatment" - lots of medical sites discuss the various things that could happen and what to do. Should be able to find something to work with your scenario among them.

Yes, assuming pulselessness...CPR could result in all of the above

Though if a person arrests secondary to a gunshot wound they will 99% of the time not make it

Victim must be unconscious and not breathing for CPR. You can do CPR on a victim with a GSW to the chest - in fact, every 911 dispatched will tell you to do so - What we are trained as far as CPR goes like this: compressions are more important that breaths. Keep the heart pumping blood to the brain - especially on a traumatic injury the causes full arrest (not conscious, not breathing). Idea being, there is likely to be enough oxygen in the blood as LONG as the the blood is being driven through the brain.

Breaths on a person with a sucking chest wound are awful. Wet, sloppy, and sound about like the worst, soggy, rasping dying thing in the world. Most EMTs or trained medics know how to treat this in the field. Medical tape and plastic wrap. Cut a square of plastic the size of the wound, tape it over the wound on three size, leaving one side open. Breath escapes normally on exhaul, but prevents air from being sucked in on inhale.

Also, with a injury like this, you've got 15 mins to the hospital. And a 9mm is not gonna do the damage you are looking for.

zebedee said:

thanks CH. I wondered about that but thought a .45 would be too much. would a 9mm break a rib, making that puncture the lung?

Click to expand...

Last week we had a guy holed up in his apartment with two 9mm wounds to the chest that were self inflicted on SATURDAY. We got him out on Monday. He was still walking, talking, and fighting the police. (No drugs in his system either).

Go with a .45. That'll get 'er done. Maybe move your shooting victim when they get shot, so there is a little rotation added to the trajectory of the bullet. Also is going to depend on muscle mass/fat mass of the victim. IE. How much crap a bullets gotta travel thru.

zebedee said:

damn. truth really is stranger than fiction.

Click to expand...

In my line of work? Oh yes.

Dandroid said:

Though if a person arrests secondary to a gunshot wound they will 99% of the time not make it

Click to expand...

That's a rather optimistic estimate

GeorgeK said:

That's a rather optimistic estimate

Click to expand...

Hehe...I knew someone would respond with that...yes it is optimistic

zebedee said:

I have a character shot in the chest by a 9mm handgun and the bullet gets stuck in the lung
I want them incapacitated so they can't run away but not to die, is this feasible?

I'm assuming that pressing on the chest as in cpr would be messy, with blood coming from the victims mouth or would it just pool into the chest cavity, with some coming from the entrance wound

the victim is shot in a shop, the cpr administered by a passer-by, not a paramedic

Click to expand...

A bullet to the lung would collapse the lung, which would need an immediate chest tube to allow the lung to re-inflate. If the patient does not get a chest tube, that sort of trauma will lead to the trachea being pushed over, the heart being compressed, and the patient going into an arrhythmia. CPR would indeed be quite messy. It could come out of the mouth with each chest compression, and would likely be frothy. Blood could also come out of the nose.
Your character would not be running anywhere after a bullet landed in his lung. He could very well be talking all the way to the hospital, though, if you need him to.