The Icy Truth: The World of Resuscitation is NOT Flat

For those looking for a better way to preserve the brain and vital organs in the future, an article released recently about work by scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital may give us a peek at a future tool in our resuscitation toolbox. It’s a process that might prove valuable if used in conjunction with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), impedance threshold devices (ITDs) and head-up CPR to keep people in a suspended state of animation until their malady is found, corrected and allowed to begin healing. Massachusetts General is the original and largest teaching hospital at Harvard Medical School. Their work is visionary and must be respected. In the article about their latest research it’s pointed out that the creation of sharp ice crystals can damage cell membranes and that current defrosting process presents some potential dangers. It’s a piece of common sense that can’t be ignored. As a person who has experienced the severe pain and damage of minute kidney stones that form like Kryptonite, get stuck or dragged along your tiny urinary pathways and tear and traumatize you like a sharp boat anchor being dragged in your body, I can fully appreciate the damage sharp ice crystals can do to tissues and organs. Want a good visual? Watch this amazing clip of ice shattering on frozen Lake Superior in Minnesota and you will understand what I mean.   So, as published in Nature Communications, the Massachusetts General scientists have developed a me...
Source: JEMS Special Topics - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Exclusive Articles Cardiac & Resuscitation Source Type: news