HUMAN PATIENT PUT IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION FOR FIRST TIME

After decades of debate over suspended animation, officially called the emergency preservation and resuscitation (EPR), scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have for the first time put the technique into practice. Suspended animation involves putting the functions of the human body on a medical ‘pause’ while performing critical surgical procedures to avert or delay death due to traumatic conditions like cardiac arrests.

THE FIRST ever suspended animation trial could lead to a turnaround on the future of emergency room surgeries.

SCIENTISTS SAY the trial is being performed on patients who have a survival rate of less than 5%

DURING THE trial, the patients are cooled rapidly by replacing their blood with ice-cold saline. As a result, the heart stops beating and brain activity almost completely stops.

AT NORMAL body temperatures, cells need a constant supply of oxygen to remain alive, but the cold temperature slows or stops the chemical reactions in cells, which need less oxygen as a result.

THE HUMAN brain can survive for around five minutes without oxygen before damage occurs, but through EPR a surgical team has two hours to work on the patient’s injuries before they’re warmed up and their heart is restarted.

FULL RESULTS of the trial are expected to be announced by the end of 2020.

TISHERMAN, SCIENTIST at the university, raised an interest in trauma research after coming across an incident in which a young man was stabbed in the heart.

THE MAN was healthy until minutes before he died and it could have been averted if we had enough time — a duration long enough to conduct medical procedure. This idea led to research in the direction of suspended animation.

ANIMAL STUDIES showed that pigs with acute trauma could be cooled for 3 hours, stitched up and resuscitated.

Once we can prove it works with humans, we can expand the utility of this technique to help patients survive that otherwise would not

— SAMUEL TISHERMAN, Team member, Baltimore facility