Mr. Raouf A. Kayaleh, MD

Pneumonia may be serious at any age but as I am an adult lung physician I cannot be more specific than that.

Not vaping is the answer to the question. There are no further interventions to help keep lungs healthy short of healthy exercising to maintain good health all around.

your complaints are somewhat too general/vague and do not point to any specific organ /system dysfunction. Many more details would be needed to make more sense of your problem.
At 1st glance a chest pain is always concerning because of of course the heart but at your age and the associated pain under the breasts, side of the ribs, arms shoulders and neck point more towards a musculoskeletal problem. The sharp nature of the pain as well.
I would look 1st into your various daily bodily activities and see if anything could be initiating, enhancing or precipitating the pain. Such as for example heavy exercising, weightlifting, stretching or other activities.
If none of that is true I would consider obtaining a blood test to look for any underlying inflammatory process that could be causing the pains. Such conditions tend to be more prominent in woman and would be worth checking. With your above complaint description there is not much more I could recommend.

To remove fluid from actually around the lung rather than the lungs per se a generally thin needle is utilized. A local anesthetic is injected 1st to numb the skin, underlying soft tissues and the lung lining layer prior to inserting the larger needle to actually remove the fluid.

The answer may be too late obviously. But yes anybody that goes through such an ordeal should go to the hospital to verify what caused the problem and fix it. This is a serious occurrence and cannot be neglected.

A chest CT scan is not harmful. There is of course a certain radiation exposure but 1 study is generally not an issue of concern. Multiple studies could potentially become a problem Related to radiation exposure.

No a CT scan is not necessarily needed after recovering from a COVID infection. It may be useful in the presence of persistent long term symptoms, following pulmonary blood clots, or simply to verify that all has returned back to normal.

It depends a lot on the nature of the surgery and exactly what was done.
If ribs were manipulated/ potentially injured the pain may last a while longer as a fracture rib pain would. The pain could also be related to a nerve injury again associated with rib handling and that could also cause prolonged post surgical pains. No way to say for sure though how long the pain will last. Generally 6 weeks would be a fair estimate but not a guarantee

A bronchitis diagnosis is generally a clinical one and does not require a radiologic study. A simple chest x-ray is usually plenty and is useful in excluding an underlying pneumonia; it may also display some thickening of the air pipes which would be indicative of a bronchitis. A CT scan is not requested for the sole purpose of identifying a bronchitis.

I am not aware that acupuncture has any healing/therapeutic effects on pneumonia. It may help some of these symptoms associated with a lung infection such as for example the chest pain occurring with coughing. It may also help some of the shortness of breath that may be associated with pneumonia but that is not to say it is actually treating. The mainstay of treatment remains antibiotics for bacterial pneumonia and time, breathing treatments, and possibly oxygen for bacterial and nonbacterial pneumonia as well. Some viral pneumonia generally occurring in individuals with low immune system function may require specific antiviral treatments.

The staging of COPD is a little bit confusing in so far as it does not necessarily reflect a person's disease burden per se. Indeed some people with higher stages could have minimal symptoms where as others could be fairly sick and other medical components need to be looked into to have a better idea of how a person will eventually do.

The clinical parameters that will affect the patient's overall condition and maybe their life span generally include:

- Degree of symptoms including cough, sputum production, shortness of breath, oxygen requirement, and responsiveness to various breathing treatments.
- Frequency of flare-ups of the disease within a year including the need for hospitalization and additional treatments. People with frequent flare-ups will necessarily not do as well.
- The presence of other associated medical conditions particularly in the older individual.
- Maintenance of appropriate fitness/endurance levels such as with exercise, rehabilitation or other interventions would add a positive note to the overall survival.

In general, therefore it is not very straightforward and there are no particular heart numbers to predict survival as there would be for example in cancer conditions.

For all practical purposes if any material enters the wrong way it should be coughed up which is a normal defensive reflex to prevent any material from causing lung damage. Cough should therefore not be held and in fact, it is very hard to hold a cough in such instances because when the trachea is stimulated/irritated by a foreign body cough must happen in an awake, healthy individual that is not intoxicated by any alcohol or drugs. Fortunately, water by itself is not going to cause any major damage to the lungs and this choking event should be of no consequence in most cases.

Your complaint may be related to a condition recognized as a postnasal drip. That means secretions originating from your nose glands trickle back down into the throat giving you the above-described sensation and usually necessitating a throat-clearing maneuver to resolve the sensation. Sometimes this may also cause some coughing. This condition can be treated with a steroid nose spray among others. It is generally a nuisance and not serious but may be occasionally associated with asthma as well.

Yes. Most bronchitis instances will resolve on their own with time. These are usually not serious. The duration of the illness, nevertheless, will vary depending on whether an individual has other lung conditions, and in younger people that would particularly be asthma. In less healthy people with other underlying medical problems, bronchitis is more likely to turn into pneumonia which at this point could become a more serious problem.

Pneumonia becomes an emergency if:
- Degree of lung involvement is sufficient to interfere with respiratory function thus causing a drop in oxygen.
- The bacteria causing pneumonia accesses the bloodstream resulting in a shock/septic condition.
- It is occurring in people with prior chronic lung disease further interfering with an already limited lung function.

The seriousness of a collapsed lung depends on how much of it is collapsed, why, and how fast it happened. So it is therefore impossible to answer that question safely without more information as the answer would be misleading. Suffice it to say that if an individual believes he has collapsed his lung, for any reason, he should promptly report to an emergency room for immediate evaluation.

Sperm, semen or any swallowed element if not regurgitated and aspirated should not get into the lungs and therefore should not cause any respiratory problems.
At your age mucous and shortness of breath ongoing for 2 years suggests you do have underlying lung problem and not likely related to the swallowed seen.
The 1 thing that promptly comes to my mind at your age is cystic fibrosis which when mild is sometimes diagnosed in the 2nd or 3rd decade of life.
Another possibility that comes to mind would also of course be underlying asthma. Neither semen nor sperm I believe are the problem.

A cold does not have to turn into a pneumonia. Most colds do not. Nevertheless the cold itself usually lasts 7-10 days. So in general if the symptoms of a cold seem to improve but a person feels worse again 7-10 days after the cold onset 1 should suspect a pneumonia or other complications.

I am sorry to say that an answer to that question is practically impossible to give as there are too many variables entering into the equation.
First the duration of your nephew being down after the lightening strike, his course subsequently, other potential complicating hospital events, all have to do to some extent with the extent of likely recovery.
The longer he was down after the lightening strike and before he was attended to the lesser the likelihood of significant recovery.
As mentioned above other complications such as his respiratory status, his kidney condition and possibly some hospital-acquired infections will also add a blow to any potential recovery.
In brief nobody can honestly give you an accurate answer to that question but the odds are not in your nephews favor. This being said I would keep going hoping for the best. Wish your nephew a prompt recovery.

Back when medicine was simpler surgeons had their patients climb up a flight of stairs to see if they were healthy enough for surgery. So having a hard time going up stairs is indicative that in general there maybe something wrong but not necessarily the lungs. It could be a heart problem, a lung problem or sometimes even some lack of fitness and conditioning because of lack of exercise.