Mythbusters Explosive Decompression Experiment

"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

Mythbusters then talked about how strong these airplanes really are and
closed with photos of the Hawaiian Airlines plane that suffered an
explosive
decompression similar to the one that the show created with a shaped
charge.
The only person killed was a flight attendant who was pulled from the
plane
by the airstream, but the passengers all survived.

However, at one of the passengers soon after gave birth to a little girl who
died a day later. There was no particular pathology. Milagro they called
her. She was my sister-in-law's niece.

I'm not blaming anyone - if anything I just wanted to honor her memory.

-- David Brooks

Neonates do die, fortunately not with great frequency... As a working doc I
immediately wondered about Caisson Disease from the rapid decompression,
when I read your posting... The fetus is normally well protected and
buffered by the body of the mother for trauma like that... And, the total
psi/bar drop in that form of decompression is minor compared to divers, et.
al., however the rate of change of the decompression is far more
instantaneous than for caisson workers and divers, so if it was Caisson
Disease the rate of change had to be the key..

Denny
"David Brooks"
However, at one of the passengers soon after gave birth to a little girl
who
died a day later. There was no particular pathology. Milagro they called
her. She was my sister-in-law's niece.

On Mon, 12 Jan 2004 08:26:04 -0500 "Dennis O'Connor" wrote:

Neonates do die, fortunately not with great frequency... As a working doc I
immediately wondered about Caisson Disease from the rapid decompression,
when I read your posting... The fetus is normally well protected and
buffered by the body of the mother for trauma like that... And, the total
psi/bar drop in that form of decompression is minor compared to divers, et.
al., however the rate of change of the decompression is far more
instantaneous than for caisson workers and divers, so if it was Caisson
Disease the rate of change had to be the key..


If that were true others on board would also have suffered from "the bends".
If the mother was severly traumatized (and who wouldn't have been) then
that could easily have caused complications. Sever emotional trauma sets
off a chain reaction of chemical events in the body. They are designed
to protect but it could have been too stressful for the baby.


R. Hubbell


Denny
"David Brooks"
However, at one of the passengers soon after gave birth to a little girl
who
died a day later. There was no particular pathology. Milagro they called
her. She was my sister-in-law's niece.