Suspended animation

[Dr Mordrid]

I'd heard about this a while back, but wasn't aware that they'd moved on to animals any higher than rats;

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15739502-13762,00.html

US scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years.

Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year, according to the Safar Centre.

Ths Safar Center was founded by Dr. Peter Safar (1924 - 2003) who is known as the father of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Dr. Safar was also the driving force behind the US's first intensive care unit and paramedical rescue service He was also nominated three times for the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Sure looks like they've ratcheted things up a few notches

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

From the picture in the article I take it that the dogs were not too pleased to be part of this experiment.

[Dr Mordrid]

My guess is that the paper did as many UK-AUS papers do: they ran with the "zombie" aspect and chose pictures to push the point.

Dr. Mordrid

[schmosef]

yep

[Tjalfe]

so how long will a dog keep in the fridge?.. just the 3 hours?

[Dr Mordrid]

They'll likely stick to a few hours until they get the procedure more developed, but you know how tech is; give 'em an inch and they'll take a light year.

And as the article noted dogs are just the start. Humans are very likely on the researchers short list because of the advantages in emergency and battlefield medicine.

Some day soon you may well see this as something to be done by emergeny squads to keep accident or heart attack victims "alive" until they can get them to treatment. You certainly can't die of blood loss, brain or heart curculatory defects or shock if you're on ice.

Dr. Mordrid

[Tjalfe]

For that it would work.. I thought it was the beginning of successfully cryogenically freezing people.

makes you wonder how many "I saw the white light at the end of the tunnel" stories will come out of the trials on humans

[Dr Mordrid]

For now actual freezing is very unlikely because of the formation of ice crystals in the cells. This has always caused damage which is irreversible. As such they'll have ot keep the body just above freezing.

This isn't to say that freezing cannot be done as many animals can be frozen solid then thawed, but they have biochemical differences that permit freezing without ice crystal formation. One such difference can be the secretion of various chemical anti-freezes in the cells that humans as of yet cannot reproduce.

Dr. Mordrid

[KvHagedorn]

From the look of that dog I thought one thing.. PET SEMATARY

[DukeP]

Well.

Wait a few years. Let me save up 100.000$ Ill invest them safely, and hit the freezer for 50 years.


THen I thaw up and live on the interest.

~~DukeP~~

[Dr Mordrid]

From the look of that dog I thought one thing.. PET SEMATARY

Me too

Dr. Mordrid

[Technoid]

Uhm, I'm NOT volunteering for the test run on humans