Imagine that you have been bitten by a poisonous snake with neurotoxic venom.Thankfully,you are rushed to the emergency room of a local hospital,where you receive antivenom.Your condition subsequently returns to normal.Before your release,your physician chastises you for not being more careful.He informs you that you were within minutes of not being able to breathe as the result of the venom's effect on the nervous control of your breathing.As a biology student,you consider this carefully,and hypothesize that your breathing would have stopped because the venom would cause
A)your trachea to collapse.
B)your lungs to collapse.
C)your diaphragm to become inactive.
D)your blood to lose oxygen.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The neurotoxic venom would affect the nervous control of breathing, specifically the diaphragm muscles which control breathing in and out. The venom would cause the diaphragm to become inactive, resulting in the person not being able to breathe properly or at all. The collapse of trachea or lungs or loss of oxygen in blood is not directly related to the effects of neurotoxic venom.

Imagine That You Have Been Bitten by a Poisonous Snake