To Treat the Dead

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Becker also endorses hypothermia—lowering body temperature from 37 to 33 degrees Celsius—which appears to slow the chemical reactions touched off by reperfusion. He has developed an injectable slurry of salt and ice to cool the blood quickly that he hopes to make part of the standard emergency-response kit. "In an emergency department, you work like mad for half an hour on someone whose heart stopped, and finally someone says, 'I don't think we're going to get this guy back,' and then you just stop," Becker says. The body on the cart is dead, but its trillions of cells are all still alive. Becker wants to resolve that paradox in favor of life.

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Posted By: tdperk @ 01/25/2010 6:30:48 AM

Reading the article will show brain cells do not die of the initial deep oxygen deprivation, but the only when after oxygen is restored do they undergo apoptosis.
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Posted By: tdperk @ 01/25/2010 6:25:00 AM

Nonsense. The better part of the healthcare costs come from end-of-life care which is a response to chronic debilitating damage caused by age--lifestyle and genetics, and the superfluity of extra-just-in-case tests and treatments which guard against lawsuit. What is discussed in this article is a really very inexpensive technology which treats trauma and acute crisis, largely preventing what moneys are spent in getting ER patients onto the operating table from being a wasted expense.
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Posted By: tdperk @ 01/25/2010 6:24:54 AM

Nonsense. The better part of the healthcare costs come from end-of-life care which is a response to chronic debilitating damage caused by age--lifestyle and genetics, and the superfluity of extra-just-in-case tests and treatments which guard against lawsuit. What is discussed in this article is a really very inexpensive technology which treats trauma and acute crisis, largely preventing what moneys are spent in getting ER patients onto the operating table from being a wasted expense.