Leave it to the pentagon to come up with a technique to prolong life when it is require on the battlefield. Far too many lives are lost in any battle but when American citizens are reading about combat fatalities pouring in from two war fronts – well, it was about time the “Brass” took a long look at ways to avoid combat mortality.
In total, about fifty percent of all U.S. combat deaths are a result of blood loss from battlefield wounds. Particularly at this time when a further thirty thousand troopers are being deployed into harm’s way in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense is putting the heat on to make some progress in the combat medicine arena. They are currently studying a method of stemming the blood loss in their soldiers by using pigs in a novel manner. They appear to be turning the swine into “zombies” or partially dead, “a sort of mort” that keeps the animals alive well after they are clinically dead. Humans are next in line for the unique approach to emergency triage.
The bureaucrats working for DARPA, the scientific research sector of the defense department, have recently funded research out of Texas A&M Institute for Preclinical Studies or [TIPS], so they can produce a treatment that will buy more time for wound combatants. They are trying to extend the “golden period”, that point in time when a wounded soldier has the optimal chance for surviving wounds with extensive bleeding. The victims chances of surviving drastically fall after the first hour – often in the heat of intense combat, the ideal type of rapid evacuation, triage and medical aid is next to impossible.
The A&M study will be using methods from a prior DARPA initiative. Stanford University had a study funded that in theory would someday allow humans to mirror the hibernation capability of squirrels – they reappear after months of winter in decent condition considering their previous state – scientists using an enzyme from the pancreas that is common to the squirrel. Another investigation conducted by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, utilized nematode worms and rodents to study the effect of hydrogen sulfide’s ability to impede the body’s opportunity to use oxygen – thus causing a type of suspended animation where a heart will cease beating and wounds stop spilling blood. Having removed about sixty percent of the rodent’s blood, Doctors were able to extend the life of the animals for ten hours with the hydrogen sulfide mixture.
It was quite reasonable that the next leg of the experimentation was to do the same thing with pigs. Swine have comparable cardiovascular works to that of humans so TIPS scientists believe they will be able to precisely predict how humans would fare based on the pig exams. The swine are sedated while physicians study them with different substances, some using hydrogen sulfide, in an effort to locate one which will safely keep the profusely bleeding swine as near to death as possible.
TIPS have a fifteen member squad laboring entirely on this project specifically and the group looks forward to some successful conclusions in the next eighteen months. Obviously, DARPA would like to see results on this study as quickly as possible since it was desperately required yesterday, according to the study director. When the research group comes upon the correct potion, it will see some further federal safety examinations and trials. After this, it will be ready for the field of battle and used on wounded soldiers.
They foresee that on the battlefield, each trooper will carry a syringe containing the elixir or into remote zones of fighting and platoon, medics would have more supplied to them. One injection would begin to shutdown metabolic requirements, followed by a suspension of their brain and heart functions. When treatment can finally occur, the wound trooper will be re-animated and the hope is they will begin a full recovery from their wounds.
As usually happens with a DARPA sponsored initiative, in this case ideas go from the drawing board to rats, to pigs to soldiers – and eventually make their way to the civilian population. The authors of the study foresee literally dozens of clinical uses; these include organ preservation for transplantation and suspending accident victims in life threatening situations, and emergency medical calls for heart attacks and stroke sufferers. Obviously, the current focus of the study is as an application for the military and battlefield medicine, but the reality is this research could become quite a bit bigger than simply for use in war zones. The potential is amazing and limited only by the imagination.
Wed, Jan 13, 2010
Anti Aging Theories, Bioscience, Immortality, Longevity