From Doctors claim suspended animation success:
A surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Hasan Alam, has tested the technique about 200 times on pigs, with a 90 per cent success rate.First he anaesthetises the animal, then cuts a major vein and artery in its abdomen to simulate multiple gunshots to a person’s chest and abdomen.
As the pig rapidly loses about half its blood and enters a state of shock, Dr Alam drains its blood and stores it before pumping chilled organ preservation fluid into its system.The animal’s body temperature falls to about 10C until it is in a state of ‘profound hypothermia’ and has no pulse and no electrical activity in its brain.
But after the blood stored earlier is warmed and pumped back into the pig’s body its heart starts beating again and it comes back to life.
‘It is still pretty awe-inspiring,’ Dr Alam said. ‘Once the heart starts beating and the blood starts pumping, voila, you’ve got another animal that’s come back from the other side.
‘Technically, I think we can do it in humans.’
He now wants automatic consent to use the technique on all patients brought to his hospital who have lost blood and would probably die with only standard care.