Amazing Breakthrough - 'Suspended Animation' Made Possible Using Poison Gas

I find this amazing, I just hope it can be applied to humans!

Scientists hope work with poison gas can be a lifesaver

The rat sniffs the air a few times, and within a minute, his naturally twitchy movements are almost still. On a monitor that shows his rate of breathing, the lines look like a steep mountain slope, going down.

At first glance, that looks bad. We need oxygen to live. If you don't get it for several minutes -- for example, if you suffer cardiac arrest or a bad gunshot wound -- you die. But something else is going on inside this rat. He isn't dead, isn't dying. The reason why, some people think, is the future of emergency medicine.

You see, Roth thinks he's figured out the puzzle. "While it's true we need oxygen to live, it's also a toxin," he explains. Scientists are starting to understand that death isn't caused by oxygen deprivation itself, but by a chain of damaging chemical reactions that are triggered by sharply dropping oxygen levels.

The thing is, those reactions require the presence of some oxygen. Hydrogen sulfide takes the place of oxygen, preventing those reactions from taking place. No chain reaction, no cell death. The patient lives.

VIDEO

Read the full article for a better understanding, I can't quote the whole thing as much as I want to.

It would be a huge tool for medics, being able to suspend the patient's body, without killing the patient, then 'switching' the body back on after medical attention.

I wonder how long it can be safely done for?

In the meantime, he's having fun trying to change the way we look at life itself. "With those fish, I turn off the heartbeat so they are clinically dead. But I can bring them back. So they must not have been dead, after all."

Very true.



[edit on 15-10-2009 by kiwifoot]

reply to post by kiwifoot


Holy poop, that just sounds a lot like some zombie-horror in the making. Weren't the zombies in "Planet terror" also turned by poison gas?


Irrational fears aside, the scientific aspects of of this research are very interesting. If lives can truly be saved by this method, emergency responders will have a powerful tool at their disposal. Lets hope for the best and keep the "Zombie survival guide" ready just in case

Originally posted by Swordbeast
reply to post by kiwifoot

 

Holy poop, that just sounds a lot like some zombie-horror in the making. Weren't the zombies in "Planet terror" also turned by poison gas?

Irrational fears aside, the scientific aspects of of this research are very interesting. If lives can truly be saved by this method, emergency responders will have a powerful tool at their disposal. Lets hope for the best and keep the "Zombie survival guide" ready just in case

Haha good call on the Zombies!!

I mean seriously, is that rad dead or alive, when the heart stops beating and it's clinically dead, is it dead?

And now it's alive again, if that could be adapted to humans it would really pose some questions about the soul, death etc.

reply to post by kiwifoot


I saw this on T.V. the other day. The implications of this are almost infinite. It does raise some questions about death. Just cuz it works on a rat doesnt mean it will have the same effects on humans. And what about your brain? Just cuz your heart stops does that mean your brain stops also? Scary stuff man.

Originally posted by kick Flip
reply to post by kiwifoot

 

I saw this on T.V. the other day. The implications of this are almost infinite. It does raise some questions about death. Just cuz it works on a rat doesnt mean it will have the same effects on humans. And what about your brain? Just cuz your heart stops does that mean your brain stops also? Scary stuff man.

I agree, it will be hard to do it in humans, but I'm hopeful they will eventually.

I'm not sure about the brain, I guess if the heart has stopped pumping then the brain would be inactive too, just a guess though!

reply to post by kiwifoot


Thats so true, DARPA have been using it for years, this should be public knowledge, they told me 3 months ago with a room full of underwriters (no pun)

HADES