Suspended Animation

A New Commentary Each Wednesday June 18, 2014

SUSPENDED ANIMATION

More science-fiction? I did some research recently on something that is on-going even as I write this—that reads like something out of the Matrix films. Doctors at the University of Pittsburgh and four other hospitals have been given the go-ahead to cool down trauma victims, primarily those suffering otherwise fatal gunshot or knife wounds, by replacing their blood with dramatically cold saline solutions, thereby suspending all signs of life—in order to give surgeons time to repair the wounds.

Once the repair is accomplished, blood from a heart-lung bypass machine is to be pumped back into the patients' vascular systems, replacing the saline solution—restoring circulation and bringing the victims' body temperatures back to normal.

Research in animals: pigs and dogs, suggest that if a person is cooled down fast enough and cold enough, physicians can basically stop the clock, giving a surgeon enough time to control the bleeding. The operative word here is "fast." With this procedure, speed is everything.

The inspiration for this procedure came from numerous anecdotal reports of people surviving without damage after spending time, perhaps as much as half an hour, in ice water, without breathing. The common thread in these seemingly miraculous survival stores is that the water was frigid. This made physicians to believe that even if the heart is stopped, if they can get the patient cold enough, fast enough, the brain, heart and other organs might be okay.

Isn't that exciting?

I don't suppose that if one remained in a "flatline state" for several hours, it would not be feasible, but the Pittsburgh pioneers think that a five to fifteen minutes time-frame might work. It would be a beginning...

Most amazingly, when the animals in the experiment are resuscitated from being cold and "dead," they wake up acting as if nothing had happened. Dogs remember tricks taught them before the operation. How the procedure will affect humans is yet unknown to me at the time I write this (6:10 pm, Tuesday, June 17, 2014).

The doctors are now just taking baby steps with this, but imagine what success can portend for the future: A properly equipped emergency vehicle, attending to all sorts of victims; cooling them down with a super-cold saline solution, then attending to their wounds, even as they are being transported to a hospital—thereby giving a new dimension to DOA: dead on arrival.

Surgeons are already using a very similar procedure to successfully operate on babies with heart defects.

I hope you will join me in praying for the success of the initial trials of something that deserves to be called Suspended Animation...or in doctorese: Therapeutic Hypothermia.

Then, of course, there could be another possible complication: freezer burn. Hadn't thought about that.

-Phil Richardson, Observer and Storytellers.

Phil's current post can be read at: http://www.imrightagain.com

If you wish to comment, Phil can be reached at:

k7os (at) comcast (dot) net

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