Posted on 09/29/2007 9:30:05 AM PDT by camerakid400
(CBS) PHILADELPHIA Doctors in Philadelphia are testing a revolutionary new treatment that is restoring life and bringing people back from the dead. CBS Station KYW-TV in Philadelphia Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl has details.
During cardiac arrest, the heart stops beating. It's a trauma alert and people are often declared dead within minutes.
But now doctors at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Hospital are bringing people back from the dead.
Dr. Lance Becker and his team are challenging fate with breakthrough new treatments that could save hundreds of thousands of lives.
61-year-old Bill Bondar is living proof that people can be brought back from the dead.
"I didn't know I died, I didn't feel anything, I still don't believe it," Bill said.
"I looked at his face, and I was looking at a dead man," Bill's wife Monica said.
It happened just after the couple left a jam session. Bill collapsed outside their home, lifeless.
"That was the most frightening thing I ever saw in my life and I knew my husband was gone. He was gone," said Monica.
Paramedics were able to restart his heart, but that's just part of the battle. Cells continue to die, and there can be damage to vital organs like the brain, that could be fatal.
Bill ended up at Penn, where he got the new experimental treatment of chilled saline that's injected.
Cooling pads are then wrapped around a patient. The body temperature is normally 98 degrees, but cooling brings it down to 92 degrees. Doctors keep it there for about 24 hours. This process is called intentional hypothermia.
"It decreases cellular injury when the cells are deprived of oxygen, so with less injury we are able to do a better job of getting people back," said Dr. Becker.
A similar cooling therapy was used on Buffalo Bills football player Kevin Everett, after a devastating spinal cord injury. He's now able to move after getting a quick infusion of cold saline.
But Dr. Becker said the cooling therapy needs to be faster, so they're developing a slushy type saline that contains ice particles. It would be injected into the blood stream to quickly reduce body temperature.
"We really believe that that is going to save lives in a way that we haven't even seen," said Dr. Becker.
"I feel lucky," said Bill.
After being dead for a few minutes back in May, Bill along with Monica are now back to enjoying their boating life, with a whole new perspective.
"Our grasp on life is so tenuous. It's so fragile that it doesn't really matter what you worry about tomorrow because you might not have it. You have to live as if you're going to die tomorrow," said Monica.
Bill now has an internal defibrillator and is taking medications.
The experimental cooling treatment at HUP can only be used on certain patients. But doctors expect it will eventually become a critical standard of care for saving lives.
“Brings Patients Back From The Dead”
impossible.
Death is final. There is no return from the dead.
If a patient is “brought back”, that patient WAS NOT DEAD!
Is this so hard to understand for people who write headlines?
While 'Rats vie for illegal alien votes, government employee votes, and dead votes...
'Pubs now fight back, trying to win back votes from the dead.
Chilling
<
Modern medicine is figuring out how to slow the dying process, reducing the cell damage, giving more time for restarting the heart, but they are not reversing dead cells and bringing life back.
Makes sense. When treating Hypothermia, if the patient lacks pulse the saying is “The patient is not dead until he is warm and has no pulse”. The body is so amazing, how even when performing complicated surgeries, the body is chilled to preserve tissue until circulation can be restored.
Keith Richards is still rockin' with the Stones....
OTOH, if you live anyway and get to age 70 and have lived like there's no tomorrow and have nothing but bills and young children to take care of you can be a greeter at Walmart.
My sister went into cardiac arrest 3 times.The first 2 times she was in the hospital when it happened and had no brain damage.The third time she was home with her husband.This was 3 years later.The rescue squad got there 20 minutes later and started her heart beating.I saw her that night and we were told she was brain dead.The doctor said it was too long and they should not have brought her back.Father prayed and we said goodbye and she went to God.That was last Aug.
This might also explain the phenomenon of cold water drowning survivals - like that toddler who fell into a cold lake and wasn’t retrieved until an hour later. As I recall, she was successfully revived using a very slow, controlled re-warming technique.
I was going to make some remark about Democrats in Chicago doing this for years, but then I saw this quote. Sometimes the remarks just write themselves.
Lazurus was an exception...and a few others.
Flatliners...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.