Surgeons to Put Gunshot Victims Into Suspended Animation
Study will see if supercooling allows wounds to be repaired quickly enough to preserve brain function.
Surgeons at a hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will soon try to save the life of a gunshot victim by killing him first—or almost.
By putting patients literally into a state of suspended animation—or "emergency preservation," as Tisherman calls it—the surgeons intend to preserve brain functioning long enough to close wounds that would otherwise be fatal.
The University of Pittsburgh hospital study will treat ten patients with this supercooling protocol and compare their survival rates with those of ten patients given standard CPR and surgery without cooling. If the protocol works on the first group, investigators will refine the procedure as necessary and try it again with another ten patients.
As part of the study, any gunshot or stabbing victim who comes to
