Tubapulmo, ‘Trumpet Lungs’

My throat tickled and itched and I coughed
I felt constricted, inflamed.
My ribs ached.
I did not automatically breathe in and out,
I had to think – keep doing this, keep breathing.

I choose to represent my theme mask/breathe in a simple and I hope elegant way. The mouth piece (trumpet) at the top of the lantern represents the gasping need for air and also how the virus enters our bodies. The facemask thorns are (prickly) protection items, while at the same time reflecting the irritation and response to the inflammation of the lining of the airway. I’ve added a title to the lantern as if it was a botanical plant because the shape of the lantern is plant-like and with this project we are making a garden.

The theme mask/breathe feels very fundamental to what we know of, at the moment, to be the main route of attack for the virus, obviously this may change as we learn more.

Prof John Wilson, president-elect of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a respiratory physician, described it in an article in The Guardian newspaper as,*

“The lining of the respiratory tree becomes injured, causing inflammation. This in turn irritates the nerves in the lining of the airway. Just a speck of dust can stimulate a cough. But if this gets worse, it goes past just the lining of the airway and goes to the gas exchange units, which are at the end of the air passages. If they become infected they respond by pouring out inflammatory material into the air sacs that are at the bottom of our lungs.”

If the air sacs then become inflamed, Wilson says this causes an “outpouring of inflammatory material [fluid and inflammatory cells] into the lungs and we end up with pneumonia.”

He says lungs that become filled with inflammatory material are unable to get enough oxygen to the bloodstream, reducing the body’s ability to take on oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide.

“That’s the usual cause of death with severe pneumonia”.

*Quoted from: the guardian

Sarah became part of the Same Sky team in 1997.  She joined as part of the  “new deal” scheme with the job centre and spent time first as an apprentice. She went to every workshop as an assistant (and gigs too), helped with big makes and worked in the office, not only photocopying but doing evaluations , writing studies and attending meetings with funders – ‘it was fab . .. a really good way of learning’.