# What does it feel like to die from a gunshot to the lung?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-feel-like-to-die-from-a-gunshot-to-the-lung/702407>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 25, 2014, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-feel-like-to-die-from-a-gunshot-to-the-lung/702407 "2014-10-25T00:13:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\
**Post date:** [October 29, 2014, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-it-feel-like-to-die-from-a-gunshot-to-the-lung/702407/22 "2014-10-29T04:36:50Z")

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> [@Bear\_Nenno](#):
>
> Yes. At least partial function. Don’t think of the lung as a balloon that rapidly deflates and goes limp when you poke a little hole in it. The lungs are more like meaty sponges on the inside, not hollow balloons. Or like a large marshmellow, even. Depending on the size and extent of the hole, the lung could even still inflate with a hole in it. Air will not exit that hole faster than it enters the rest of the lung, so there is still some function.  
> When you hear someone talk about a “collapsed lung”, don’t image a balloon going limp. The collapsed lung is not caused by the fact that there is a hole in it. A lung with no air in it at all is still pretty large and solid looking–not limp like an empty balloon. It doesn’t need air in it to hold its shape, and it doesn’t collapse because there is no longer air inside to make it full. Instead, it collapses because it is being squeezed by the blood or air that is getting trapped between the chest wall and the lung itself. Imagine someone squeezing that meaty sponge. When the pressure inside the chest cavity is released, the lung will actually return to its normal size. Squeeze a marshmellow in your hand. That is the collapsed lung. When you release the marshmellow, it returns to the original size because it has some integrity to its shape. Just like the lung. So it really isn’t collapsing in the traditional sense, it is being squeezed.  
> This same pressure from the blood or air filling the chest cavity will be putting a lot of pressure on the heart as well. This is a bigger concern than the hole in the lung. If the pressure is managed, if a tension pneumothorax is prevented or never develops, the lung could probably even heal on its own. I imagine plenty of people survived arrows to the chest back in the day. A Soldier would rather be shot through a lung than through the abdomen.

Thanks, I really imagined that wrong in my head.

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