Innovative Medical Breakthrough: Doctors Use Suspended Animation
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Suspended Animation in Medicine
Recent advancements in medical science have led to an astonishing development: for the first time, physicians have successfully induced suspended animation in human patients. According to reports from New Scientist, preliminary findings from a pioneering trial were shared during a recent session of The New York Academy of Sciences. While definitive outcomes are still pending, this technique could potentially be life-saving for individuals experiencing critical blood loss due to traumatic injuries like gunshot or stab wounds.
> “Survival chances are minimal when the heart stops due to trauma,” states Samuel Tisherman from the University of Maryland. “We aim to rapidly cool the patient to extremely low temperatures, allowing us time to halt the bleeding and gradually restore blood flow as we warm them up again.”
Section 1.1: Understanding Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR)
The method being trialed is termed Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation (EPR). Although Tisherman cannot disclose specific details at this stage, he confirmed that his team has conducted “at least one” EPR procedure. Notably, Tisherman is a co-author on a patent for the EPR technique and has received funding from the US Department of Defense for this research.
Subsection 1.1.1: The Ethical Landscape of EPR
The ongoing trial concentrates on individuals suffering from “penetrating trauma,” such as severe gunshot or knife wounds that have led to cardiac arrest. The US government granted ethics approval for this research roughly three years ago. In a controversial decision, the FDA allowed the team to perform EPR without obtaining prior consent from patients. This was necessary since the patients they enroll are already in cardiac arrest, and timing is critical for any chance of survival.
Section 1.2: The Protocols of EPR
EPR begins with standard emergency procedures, as Tisherman explains: assessing the trauma source, intubating the patient to assist with breathing, administering blood transfusions, and, if required, performing chest compressions to improve blood circulation. Only when these initial life-saving interventions prove ineffective do they implement the unique EPR protocols, designed to prolong life long enough for surgical intervention.
> “We must buy time to transport the patient to the operating room so the surgeon can control the bleeding,” he notes. To achieve this, doctors insert a tube into the aorta, infusing a significant volume of very cold saline into the body. “This approach delivers cold fluid to vital organs, especially the brain and heart, as swiftly as possible.”
Chapter 2: Future of EPR and Potential Applications
The research team anticipates releasing their trial results in late 2020. However, Tisherman remains tight-lipped about the specific findings thus far. It is crucial to recognize that, regardless of the outcomes, EPR is still far from becoming an established medical treatment. “Our current study is focused on assessing the feasibility and safety of this approach,” he clarifies. Proving a technique is viable in urgent scenarios doesn't equate to demonstrating that it can consistently save lives.
The first video titled Are We Ready For Suspended Animation? explores the implications of this emerging technology. It discusses the potential and challenges of suspended animation in critical care.
The second video, New Procedure Suspends Patients Between Life and Death While Doctors Operate on Injuries, delves into the details of how EPR is applied in real-life emergency situations.
The term "EPR" was chosen intentionally to avoid the science-fiction connotations often associated with suspended animation, which may evoke images of astronauts in stasis. “The concept of freezing living patients is far-fetched,” remarks Bradford Winters, a critical care medicine professor at Johns Hopkins not involved in the study. However, deliberately cooling a patient for several hours to gain critical time is a much more realistic objective, supported by existing research. “Lowering an animal's body temperature slows biochemical processes, which may be contributing to further injury,” Winters points out.
Looking ahead, Tisherman and his team aspire to create medications that can similarly halt cellular activity, eliminating the need for saline to achieve suspended function. “The cooling process is cumbersome and challenging,” he admits, which is far from ideal when every second could mean the difference between life and death. However, he cautions that any such advancements are still years away.