https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/nov/20/humans-put-into-suspended-animation-for-first-time
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 patient’s 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.
[...] Rapid cooling of trauma victims is designed to reduce brain activity to a near standstill and to slow the patient’s physiology enough to give surgeons precious extra minutes, perhaps more than an hour, to operate. Once the patient’s injuries have been attended to, they are warmed up and resuscitated.
One aim of the US trial is to reduce the brain damage that patients are often left with if they survive such serious injuries. When the heart stops and blood stops circulating, the brain quickly becomes starved of oxygen, suffering irreparable damage within about five minutes.
The trial will compare the outcomes of 20 men and women who receive standard emergency care or EPR. The trial is due to run until the end of the year, and full results are not expected until late 2020.
One complication of the procedure is that patients’ cells can become damaged as they are warmed up after surgery.
Also reported at:
- https://www.engadget.com/2019/11/20/human-patient-put-in-suspended-animation-for-the-first-time/
- https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-11-medical-trauma-patient-state-animation.html
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Tuesday November 26 2019, @12:42PM (4 children)
ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01042015
First Posted : January 5, 2010
Last Update Posted : August 14, 2019
Actual Study Start Date : October 2016
Can Hypothermia Save Gunshot Victims? [archive.is]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:06PM (1 child)
If they wanted they could have made it opt-in by handing out "yes" bracelets.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday November 26 2019, @10:04PM
Thereby artificially limiting the number of potential participants
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by driverless on Wednesday November 27 2019, @02:27AM
Actually this has been happening for centuries at least. Whenever parliament is in session, the majority of the house except for the few people speaking go into suspended animation.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by driverless on Wednesday November 27 2019, @02:29AM
Actually this has been happening for centuries at least. Whenever parliament is in session,
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday November 26 2019, @01:08PM (3 children)
Freezing meatbags is easy, thawing is the tricky part.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @01:33PM (1 child)
also reading past the Headline is difficult. Nowhere does it mention freezing anything.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Bot on Wednesday November 27 2019, @12:14AM
I was just adding my bit of personal experience.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 1) by RandomFactor on Wednesday November 27 2019, @12:16AM
You're not dead until you're warm and dead.
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 4, Insightful) by esperto123 on Tuesday November 26 2019, @01:36PM (5 children)
Isn't this, or something very similar, being used by russian surgeons for ages? I remember seeing documentaries about this like 25 years ago.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @02:52PM (2 children)
I remember this from the 1970s.
(Score: 3, Funny) by barbara hudson on Tuesday November 26 2019, @10:36PM (1 child)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @10:54PM
Unfortunately, it causes their eyes to bleed profusely until true death.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:49PM (1 child)
Yes, it was standard procedure instead of relying on a heart lung machine.
So how would they preserve the victim's blood for later replacement? What if the victim is too holey for the solution to be deployed?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday November 26 2019, @11:26PM
My guess, and it's only a guess, is that they wouldn't preserve the blood but rely on total transfusion... It would be interesting if they could save any of the patient's blood akin to an autologous transfusion, but how they would avoid dilution with the cryosolution would be the question - a total transfusion is probably easier.
As to "too holey" - there are three organs that require constant oxygenated blood perfusion: Brain, heart, and kidneys. The other organs require oxygen but can survive for varying degrees without it for some amount of time. Make sure the arteries and veins to the big three aren't leaking first, then trauma clamp the tears on other vessels. (Remember that it's not the number of holes... it's the number of arteries or major veins that are compromised that are the worry....)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:28PM (14 children)
This is fantastic news for my end of life plans. My kids are into Ancient Egypt at the moment and asked me if I want to be mummified when I die. I said no, freeze me in carbonite and place me in your entryway. I had resigned myself to being actually dead and bronzed as an homage, but with this advance there's a chance I could be revived by a fearless and inventive bounty hunter.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday November 26 2019, @03:46PM
Composting is a nice option too. I have seen lots of "green burial sites" popping up around the uk...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:18PM (8 children)
On one level, mummification actually worked. We've successfully extracted DNA from mummies.
I'm signed up to be frozen when I die, Cryonics, because I feel like it has a better chance of working over the alternative. It probably won't, but a one in a billion chance is still better than none in a billion.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday November 26 2019, @04:28PM (3 children)
Whole body, or just your head? Solemn pose, or goofy one?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday November 26 2019, @06:18PM (2 children)
Whole body, updside down in a liquid nitrogen dewar, Cryonics Institute Clifton Township Michigan.
I'll be (mostly) dead, so the pose is out of my control.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday November 26 2019, @07:14PM (1 child)
If your luck is like mine, they'll dress you up as Ronald McDonald.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @05:02AM
They will dress her up as Ronald Reagan, then use her as a superconducting perpetual energy source until such time as she can be thawed out in order to be consciously offended :)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 26 2019, @11:48PM (3 children)
How much are you coughing up for that one in a billion chance?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 27 2019, @01:55AM
The odds are indeed astronomically bad that you will be revived.
For one, who says that EVEN IF the technology to revive you existed that they WOULD EVEN BOTHER?
You're not worth the initial expense or the ongoing medical expenses to care for you after or to integrate you into society.
You are counting on the massive charity of strangers who could get a much bigger return by spending the $$$ and effort on THEIR OWN PEOPLE.
Your only hope is to be someone's science experiment during and after, a "specimen" to do continuing research on.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday November 27 2019, @03:53AM (1 child)
The sticker price is $40,000 for the suspension and ~$100 per year in annual dues. I'm paying for the suspension with life insurance, so it's cheap. I'm the sole breadwinner for 4 humans and a preposterous number of cats so I have a lot of life insurance. Cryonics is a pretty small part of it.
I'd like to move my setup to Alcor, but it's nontrivially more expensive. I feel like their standby, stabilization, and transport arrangements are better. Cost has prevented me from making the jump.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Wednesday November 27 2019, @10:57AM
It's an open question who has the better suspension system*, but CI will accept patients who are already suspended. It wouldn't be as cheap as going straight to CI, but you could avoid the Alcor trust component, which is a significant part of the cost difference.
*I think it is going to take MNT level reconstruction to restore almost all of the people currently suspended. The argument then reduces to which system best preserves the information at the cell/synapse/neuron level to allow that. Gross cracking from straight freezing looks bad, but actually erases very little information. It may turn out that the best suspensions were the early ones with straight freezing to LN2 temps.
Good luck, and I'll see you at the wake-up party. :)
No problem is insoluble, but at Ksp = 2.943×10−25 Mercury Sulphide comes close.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday November 26 2019, @11:27PM (3 children)
Or as Mr. Freeze. (That's Dr. to you....)
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 27 2019, @11:37AM (2 children)
With all you guys talking about being frozen I had a flash of inspiration: You should rent out the block of ice with your corpse frozen inside to high-end goth parties they chip ice chunks from at the bar to make drinks. Then you bank the proceeds in an index fund to finance your eventual revival.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday November 27 2019, @03:23PM (1 child)
Only if we charge triple for Daquiries , Grasshoppers, Mojitos, and Mint Juleps.
If you like Pina Coladas
And watching frozen brains
If you're not into hygiene
And won't put me in the rain
If you like frozen hands at midnight
and dewar flasks you like to scrape
you're the drinker that I've looked for
Take the ice but don't amputate...
This sig for rent.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 27 2019, @06:17PM
haha yes, serve them via ice luges [www.leaf.tv] that originate from strategic points. Obviously the whole slab containing your carcass has to be mounted to a pivoting frame, though, because Mud Slides, Kahlua, and Black Russians will want to slide down the channel on the flip side.
Washington DC delenda est.