Resuscitation science, pt. II
Yesterday I blogged about "resuscitation science"-- and the startling discovery that rapidly infusing a nearly-dead person with oxygen can actually hasten their cellular death. In contrast, scientists in this area are arguing that someone who's been deprived of oxygen for a while should be kept cold, very slowly warmed up, and only then gradually introduced to oxygen.
After reading about that, Tony Comstock emailed me with this great anecdote:
I used to be a white water river guide, and many of the most exciting rivers were fed by snow melt and ran very cold. There was simple saying regarding resuscitation of people who had drowned in these rivers: they're not dead till they're warm and dead. While this could mean performing ultimately fruitless CPR for more than an hour, it also saved lives.
As I wrote back to Tony: "I'm always intrigued to see the ways that the everyday practices of people in the world -- farmers, athletes, mothers, etc. -- intuit scientific principles long before scientists themselves figure them out ..."
Posted by Clive Thompson at May 08, 2007 03:00 PM
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I tried to pull up your post from yesterday, but the link wasn't working. It did remind me of an article that I had read detailing the work of Mark Roth (page 2).
It is fascinating to learn that triggering a person to "shut down" can actually keep them from death, even in critical situations.
Posted by: ucfhf at May 8, 2007 3:19 PM
Thanks for the heads-up on the broken link -- I fixed it!
Also, thanks for the link to that Wired story -- it's excellent!
Posted by: Clive at May 8, 2007 3:35 PM
Now, is this not also similar to an article in Wired a couple of months ago about US Army medics artificially lowering the body temp of soldiers injured in combat to suspend them until they reached a hospital, or am I confusing two stories?
Posted by: jenpot at May 9, 2007 10:10 AM
Ignore me, I didn't click the link before speaking, my bad.
Posted by: jenpot at May 9, 2007 10:31 AM
Posted by: Clive at May 9, 2007 12:25 PM
There was a remarkable story in December of an Edmonton teacher, Dan O'Reilly, who nearly drowned in Mexico. He went without oxygen for - i kid you not - more than 45 minutes. He was airlifted to Houston where doctors estimated that he had a 1% chance of survival - and not a pretty survival at that. They used an experimental cooling technique called hypothermic therapy that had been used on heart attack victims but never a drowning victim. He not only came out of it alive, doctors describe his recovery as nothing more than miraculous.
CBC's The National ran a doc on it all in December.
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/health/frozen_man.html
I couldn't get the doc to play on my computer, so if you run into problems email me and I'll send you the transcript.
They're also doing a lot of research on rapid cooling technology at U of Chicago. Apologies for the ugly urls but I don't know how to embed it in the text!
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2005/ET051028.html
Posted by: teenerweiner at May 17, 2007 1:44 PM
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I tried to pull up your post from yesterday, but the link wasn't working. It did remind me of an article that I had read detailing the work of Mark Roth (page 2).
It is fascinating to learn that triggering a person to "shut down" can actually keep them from death, even in critical situations.
Posted by: ucfhf![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 8, 2007 3:19 PM
Thanks for the heads-up on the broken link -- I fixed it!
Also, thanks for the link to that Wired story -- it's excellent!
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 8, 2007 3:35 PM
Now, is this not also similar to an article in Wired a couple of months ago about US Army medics artificially lowering the body temp of soldiers injured in combat to suspend them until they reached a hospital, or am I confusing two stories?
Posted by: jenpot![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 9, 2007 10:10 AM
Ignore me, I didn't click the link before speaking, my bad.
Posted by: jenpot![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 9, 2007 10:31 AM
No worries.
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 9, 2007 12:25 PM
There was a remarkable story in December of an Edmonton teacher, Dan O'Reilly, who nearly drowned in Mexico. He went without oxygen for - i kid you not - more than 45 minutes. He was airlifted to Houston where doctors estimated that he had a 1% chance of survival - and not a pretty survival at that. They used an experimental cooling technique called hypothermic therapy that had been used on heart attack victims but never a drowning victim. He not only came out of it alive, doctors describe his recovery as nothing more than miraculous.
CBC's The National ran a doc on it all in December.
http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/health/frozen_man.html
I couldn't get the doc to play on my computer, so if you run into problems email me and I'll send you the transcript.
They're also doing a lot of research on rapid cooling technology at U of Chicago. Apologies for the ugly urls but I don't know how to embed it in the text!
http://www.anl.gov/Media_Center/News/2005/ET051028.html
Posted by: teenerweiner![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 17, 2007 1:44 PM