Researchers Develop Way for People to Live Without Breathing
A new medical breakthrough, which uses micro-particles, has the ability to keep a person alive by essentially breathing for them.
The new medical process was engineered by a team of researchers at Boston Children's Hospital who stated that it will allow medical personnel to keep patients alive for up to 30 minutes who experienced a major respiratory failure.
Researchers explained that this will allow doctors the time needed to administer medical care without risking the chance of a heart attack or permanent brain damage due to loss of oxygen.
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The reason doctors claim to be able to keep a person alive even if they are not breathing is due to use of micro-particles that are able to carry "three to four" more times more oxygen in red blood cells that are currently found in the body.
The micro-particles which are able to contain the high levels of oxygen are packaged in lipids or certain types of fat cells. This development has been a long time coming as researchers were having trouble finding a module that would be able to carry the oxygen rich solution through the bloodstream
John Kheir, from the Department of Cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital, explained they were able to overcome the problem using deformable particles and not bubbles.
"We have engineered around this problem by packaging the gas into small, deformable particles. They dramatically increase the surface area for gas exchange and are able to squeeze through capillaries where free gas would get stuck," according to a statement.
The new substance has already been tested on animals suffering from critical lung failure and was successful in elevating the oxygen level in the animal's blood stream.
"Some of the most convincing experiments were the early ones. We drew each other's blood, mixed it in a test tube with the micro-particles, and watched blue blood turn immediately red, right before our eyes," Kheir said.
