Posted on 05/08/2013 6:10:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
New Medical Discovery
A team of scientists at the Boston Children’s Hospital have invented what is being considered one the greatest medical breakthroughs in recent years. They have designed a microparticle that can be injected into a person’s bloodstream that can quickly oxygenate their blood. This will even work if the ability to breathe has been restricted, or even cut off entirely.
This finding has the potential to save millions of lives every year. The microparticles can keep an object alive for up to 30 min after respiratory failure. This is accomplished through an injection into the patients’ veins. Once injected, the microparticles can oxygenate the blood to near normal levels. This has countless potential uses as it allows life to continue when oxygen is needed but unavailable. For medical personnel, this is just enough time to avoid risking a heart attack or permanent brain injury when oxygen is restricted or cut off to patients.
Dr. John Kheir, who first began the study, works in the Boston Children’s Hospital Department of Cardiology. He found inspiration for the drug in 2006, when he was treating a girl in the ICU who had a severe case of pneumonia......
(Excerpt) Read more at techwench.com ...
The reason Carbon Monoxide (CO) is that it prevents oxygen from binding to the hemoglobin.
Just as we have kidney dialysis machines, a machine could probably be developed to remove/scrub CO2 from the blood.
However, the mechanism that expels CO2 from the body is the key mechanism for balancing pH. I believe pH must be in the range of 7.35 to 7.45 (a very narrow range).
Wow! If true and practical this would be an amazing trauma protocol. Imagine someone needing a breathing tube which takes time but the first task is to inject this substance, buying time for the patient.
The problem is that O2 saturation can fall faster than CO2 absorption increases, so when seconds count O2 matters most.
When I donate blood, they have the ability to just take platelets or just red blood cells.
So it might be possible to get a machine to remove CO2 from the blood like a dialysis machine does.
If I recall, didn’t Vonnegut write about drinking Hydrogen peroxide - you get both oxygen & water.
I think I’ll stick with the old way.
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