The lungs are made of delicate tissue A collapsed lung, or pneumothorax, involves the collapse of the tissues of part or all of one lung so that oxygen cannot be absorbed into the blood stream in the normal way. If the oxygen supply to the vital organs is seriously diminished, life will be put at risk.
Death can occur within minutes.
In George Harrison's case, the condition was caused by air escaping into the chest, and preventing the lung from inflating. Each time the patient takes a breath, the problem gets worse. Harrison was lucky, the knife wound only penetrated about one inch, and tissue damage was not as severe as it could have been. Doctors were able to treat him successfully by draining escaped air away from his chest. This was down by inserting a tube called a chest drain to allow air to escape from the chest cavity.