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Gunshot victims to be suspended between life and death
New Scientist ^ | Helen Thomson | 26 March 2014

Posted on 03/28/2014 7:48:37 PM PDT by neverdem

Doctors will try to save the lives of 10 patients with knife or gunshot wounds by placing them in suspended animation, buying time to fix their injuries

NEITHER dead or alive, knife-wound or gunshot victims will be cooled down and placed in suspended animation later this month, as a groundbreaking emergency technique is tested out for the first time.

Surgeons are now on call at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to perform the operation, which will buy doctors time to fix injuries that would otherwise be lethal.

"We are suspending life, but we don't like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction," says Samuel Tisherman, a surgeon at the hospital, who is leading the trial. "So we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation."

The technique involves replacing all of a patient's blood with a cold saline solution, which rapidly cools the body and stops almost all cellular activity. "If a patient comes to us two hours after dying you can't bring them back to life. But if they're dying and you suspend them, you have a chance to bring them back after their structural problems have been fixed," says surgeon Peter Rhee at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who helped develop the technique.

The benefits of cooling, or induced hypothermia, have been known for decades. At normal body temperature – around 37 °C – cells need a regular oxygen supply to produce energy. When the heart stops beating, blood no longer carries oxygen to cells. Without oxygen the brain can only survive for about 5 minutes before the damage is irreversible.

However, at lower temperatures, cells need less oxygen because all chemical reactions slow down. This explains why people who fall into icy lakes can sometimes be revived more than half...

(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: suspendedanimation
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To: arderkrag

Reminds me of Larry Niven’s “corpsesickles”, people who froze themselves awaiting science to find a cure. Unfortunately for most, they are thawed out only to find they have to stand before a government death panel to justify the cost of keeping them alive. With their investments long gone and their skills obsolete, most are sent to the organ banks to be disassembled and given to transplant patients.


41 posted on 03/29/2014 1:18:00 AM PDT by Hugin
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To: TigersEye

So no posts permitted about weather/storms, sports, missing aircraft, blah, blah, blah,,,right? Censorship. You know who is fond of censorship? Commie lib-er-als.


42 posted on 03/29/2014 1:24:24 AM PDT by chessplayer
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To: Norm Lenhart

It’s Saline, Sodium Chloride solution not potassium. Large amounts of potassium are fatal


43 posted on 03/29/2014 2:29:49 AM PDT by Kozak ("It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal" Henry Kissinger)
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To: Hugin

“Unfortunately for most, they are thawed out only to find they have to stand before a government death panel to justify the cost of keeping them alive.”

So, let’s assume that your insurance company would require a prior authorization and the ubiquitous “medical review” before authorizing payment for this particular procedure. I’ll bet that precious 2 hour time frame just flies by. Don’t try this on weekends or holidays.


44 posted on 03/29/2014 3:23:37 AM PDT by Artie (We are surrounded by MORONS)
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To: neverdem

Who benefits from this? the criminal who robbed and raped your family, a criminal who robbed and killed innocent people? The odds and numbers of saving some one from an accident are slim compared


45 posted on 03/29/2014 4:21:30 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Im missing a jumbo jet with 235 passengers has anyone seen it?)
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To: neverdem
This has worked coincidently. I recall someone under water for a half hour or more and subsequently revived. The revival was attributed to the 30 something degree water.
46 posted on 03/29/2014 5:36:22 AM PDT by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

You mock tenderness, and therefore show none towards God. Which keeps your eternity in the same danger.

The bible wasn’t written so you could trumpet how right you were. It was written so you could see how wrong you were and then repent.


47 posted on 03/29/2014 6:30:17 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: ronnie raygun

Only bad guys get shot badly?


48 posted on 03/29/2014 6:30:56 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck

You know it’s amazing. I don’t agree with athesim. I despise it in fact. But thanks to you ‘Bible on the sleeve/Holier than thou Intervangelist” types, I certainly ‘understand’ them.

I just thank God you aren’t truly representative of the rest of us.


49 posted on 03/29/2014 6:38:38 AM PDT by Norm Lenhart (I)
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To: neverdem

I sure hope the defense lawyers are getting the bills for this. As long as they are alive, their clients won’t be charged with murder.


50 posted on 03/29/2014 6:38:49 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: Norm Lenhart

Yeah you thank God that you aren’t as that “tax collector.”

Seems the bible has a story about just that Pharisee.


51 posted on 03/29/2014 6:41:33 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

And confess it. You only “despise atheism” because believers are more convenient. As long as they don’t believe too deeply, like in the shepherd who sought the one leaving the ninety-nine, oh that is so racist, and similar anti-Christ fallacies of yours.


52 posted on 03/29/2014 6:42:58 AM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: chessplayer
Is there ANY possible topic that can be posted in here that won’t be ruined by people turning it into political crap?


Nope!

53 posted on 03/29/2014 7:42:12 AM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
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To: HiTech RedNeck
Put it in your advance medical directive if you don’t want extraordinary measures.

You can have your advanced directive, but bare in mind the ACA will have one too. Guess which one matters?

54 posted on 03/29/2014 7:48:07 AM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
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To: chessplayer

I answered your question. You were the one talking about censoring.


55 posted on 03/29/2014 1:38:43 PM PDT by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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To: TigersEye

I answered your question. You were the one talking about censoring.


YOU are the one claiming NOTHING BUT POLITICS can ever be talked about in here.


56 posted on 03/29/2014 9:28:48 PM PDT by chessplayer
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To: chessplayer

Liar.


57 posted on 03/29/2014 10:13:47 PM PDT by TigersEye (Stupid is a Progressive disease.)
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