Posted on 11/20/2019 12:43:35 PM PST by LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget
Groundbreaking trial in US rapidly cools trauma victims with catastrophic injury to buy more time for surgery
Doctors have put humans into a state of suspended animation for the first time in a groundbreaking trial that aims to buy more time for surgeons to save seriously injured patients.
The process involves rapidly cooling the brain to less than 10C by replacing the patients blood with ice-cold saline solution. Typically the solution is pumped directly into the aorta, the main artery that carries blood away from the heart to the rest of the body.
Known formally as emergency preservation and resuscitation, or EPR, the procedure is being trialled on people who sustain such catastrophic injuries that they are in danger of bleeding to death and who suffer a heart attack shortly before they can be treated. The patients, who are often victims of stabbings or shootings, would normally have less than a 5% chance of survival.
Samuel Tisherman, at the University of Maryland, in Baltimore, described the trial at a recent symposium held by the New York Academy of Sciences. He said at least one patient had had the procedure but did not elaborate on whether that patient or any others had survived. The first time the team performed the process was a little surreal, he told New Scientist magazine.
Rapid cooling of trauma victims is designed to reduce brain activity to a near standstill and to slow the patients physiology enough to give surgeons precious extra minutes, perhaps more than an hour, to operate. Once the patients injuries have been attended to, they are warmed up and resuscitated.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I thought suspended animation is what happens when you hang someone without enough drop.
A fate worse than death!
So that's what happened to Schiff and Nadler. I knew it had to be something like that...
We already do cold treatments, just externally, so this is a logical extension of that, although it seems odd that we have no idea if it is working but they are actually doing it.
I think I read this in a trashy novel with no cover. Author, Robin Cook?
“What are electrolytes? Do you even know what that means?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqUxB2l6N_Q
Found it. Apparently a thriller was distilled from a forgettable book.
“Collins, can we skip the technicals? .....Collins!”
Yeah, modern emergency medicine saves many that wouldn’t have made it in the past, you hit the nail on the head.
It’s what they use to make Brawndo’s, it’s got what plants crave.
Poor, rural Vermonters did this every winter with the old folks they couldn't feed for the winter.
Search by "vermont freezing old folks".
“mist” ... as in THC cloud from a vape pen?
This is referring to the Democrats in the House, right? (:-)
I’ve enjoyed many of Pohl’s works. I wasn’t aware of this one, thanks for the tip.
I wonder if they’ve looked into using perfluorocarbons or similar fluids, instead of just saline, to provide oxygen?
Missing the point - good medical step forward to give more time to save lives....even if long-term success never comes about, this is a good thing.
Because there will be all these frozen corpses?
????? The main point of the article is that they can now slow down metabolism and brain activity for a period that allows doctors/surgeons more time to repair wounds that would have been fatal w/o the technology...the medical applications are valid and the “take a long trip between stars and galaxies” applications don’t matter except that they have spawned a usefulness that can potentially be used in the here and now.
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.