On sucking chest wounds

On announcing his retirement from the military, Gen. Rick Hillier compared the pain of leaving his profession to that of a "sucking chest wound". [G&M via Paul Wells].

An ordinary human might think of that as kind of a weird metaphor. However, I'm thinking the good General was made to watch the same first aid video that I had to watch fifteen years ago, as a fresh recruit at the Canadian Forces' Officer Candidate School. Naturally, one of the injuries being treated in the video was the "sucking chest wound". For the rest of my (short, undistinguished) military career, the phrase "sucking chest wound" would get a laugh out of any of my colleagues.

The video made quite the impression. I remember the treatment to this day: you're supposed to find a plastic bag and tape it over the wound, but don't seal the bag tightly over the wound or else fluid builds up (the consequences of which were graphically illustrated in the video as the "victim" coughed up a bunch of fake-looking blood).

Also, apparently the technical term for such an injury is pneumothorax.