[Lung collapse caused by hiatal hernia secondary to manual abdominal compression].

To the Editor: Abdominal compression is a maneuver that is often applied in manually assisted coughing1 to aid patients with mainly neuromuscular disease whose cough is inadequate for removing bronchial secretions.2 We report the case of a woman who was tetraplegic secondary to transverse myelitis. Her caregivers provided manually assisted coughing for years but the maneuver was apparently related to the complication that required hospital admission.