Originally Posted By: Famdoc
The rare person who has a spontaneous pneumothorax (without a penetrating wound, mostly tall skinny adolescents), will not be helped by a chest seal: There is nothing to seal on the skin. For relief, the needle thoracentesis provides the quickest relief and can sometimes avoid need for a chest tube.


Good to know -- the only tension pneumothorax that I've been trained to expect is immediately following a gunshot wound, stabbing, or similar traumatic injury.

Quote:
The American College of Surgeons Advanced Trauma Life Support course and Tactical Combat Casualty Courses cover these techniques, but these courses may be very difficult to access if you are not in medicine/nursing/EMT/Paramedic/firefighting/law enforcement already.


TCCC-type training is much easier to get than it was a few years ago for firearms instructors; some classes are advertised for the (much larger) concealed carry market.