What counts as death? Next year, the definition will be repeatedly tested as doctors place people with life-threatening injuries in suspended animation using a groundbreaking emergency technique.
Researchers at the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have developed the technique to give doctors more time to work on people鈥檚 injuries. The body is cooled by rapidly replacing all the blood with cold saline. This stops almost all cellular activity and body temperature drops to 10 掳C. At this point, the patient has no blood in their body, is not breathing and has no brain activity. In any other situation they would be declared clinically dead.
聯The patient has no blood, isn鈥檛 breathing and has no brain activity. In any other situation they鈥檇 be declared dead聰
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At this temperature, cells can survive without oxygen, instead slowly producing energy through anaerobic glycolysis. If your body attempted to do this now, as you sit there digesting your umpteenth festive lunch, you would survive for about 2 minutes. But at low temperatures, cells can survive in this state for hours. If doctors are able to fix the person鈥檚 injuries in this time, they will be revived by slowly warming the body with blood. In animal experiments, this prompted the heart to start beating again of its own accord, but if that fails, patients will be manually resuscitated.
Doctors were awaiting their first patient last May 鈥� potentially someone with a stab or gunshot wound whose heart has stopped beating due to blood loss and who arrives at a time when the whole team is available. However, when I checked in with the lead doctor last month, he said he was no longer able to comment publicly on whether the procedure had been performed on anyone. My guess is that the study has already started and will carry on throughout 2015. It鈥檚 certainly a macabre taste of what might be possible further down the line.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥�2015 Preview: Just the right side of death鈥�