This chapter is about pneumonia, a condition that involves infection of the lung and triggers an inflammatory response resulting in pulmonary edema. Pulmonary edema is a serious condition where the lungs fill with fluid instead of air, making it difficult to breath. Health care workers need to be acutely aware of the occurance of pulmonary edema because it increases the likelihood that patients will need mechanical ventilation and because it is a major contributor to in-hospital mortality.

This chapter is subdivided into:

• Pre-test
• Lung anatomy
• Normal physiology of breathing and the cough reflex
• Pulmonary circulation, organs and structures of the respiratory zone
• Lung microbiome and barriers to infection
• Bacterial and viral pneumonia
• Inflammatory responses to infection
• Gross pathology and histopathology of infection
• Diagnosis and Treatment of Pulmonary Edema
• Interview with medical radiography technologist (Xray) and a medical lab technologist (microbiologist)
• Case study of two patients with pneumonia:  Erin Johns (and English speaker and advocates for herself) and Miki Huang (a non-English speaker with family as her advocate)
• Post-test

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used throughout the chapter.