Utah emergency crews will administer synthetic blood

Starting this week, Utah emergency crews may administer an oxygen-carrying blood substitute to help keep injured people alive.

The product would be used at the scenes of traumatic injuries and severe bleeding in place of the usual intravenous saline solution.

University and LDS hospitals are participating in a 25-center national clinical trial of PolyHeme, a hemoglobin-based, oxygen-carrying blood substitute made by Northfield Laboratories of Evanston, Ill.

PolyHeme can do something that saline can't: Carry oxygen to tissue, just as blood does.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UT_SYNTHETIC_BLOOD_UTOL-?SITE=VARIT&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-21-05-26-37

I'm not sure how much of it was the typical scare-mongering of the MSM, but the ethics involved are troubling, to say the least.

The idea that an experimental treatment can be used on patients without their knowledge or consent...

Very disturbing.

but I do find something a little disturbing about this study, the lack of publicity surrounding it. People in target areas where the study is being carried out should have 15 second PSA spots during prime time to inform them and to tell them where to get the bracelets they'll need to refuse the test.

Not getting informed consent in an emergency situation is standard, and this stuff will be used in emergency situations. However, people do need to be informed that it's going on and have a chance to opt out.

Ambulance crews can't just give blood. They can't store it properly, they can't check the patient for appropriate type, they can't cope with disaster should a transfusion reaction occur. All they have now is salt water, which will support blood pressure but which won't stop damage to brain and major organs from oxygen deprivation.

If this stuff works, it will save many lives. I don't know if they're doing it in my area, but it's one trial I would be proud to take part in should disaster arise.

in emergency/life and death situations.