There are so many “major medical breakthroughs” nowadays that I hardly pay attention anymore, but if this one works like they’re saying it does, talk about a game changer!
A team of researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital has developed injectable microparticles that it says can oxygenate the blood of people who aren’t breathing, keeping them going for 15 to 30 minutes without sustaining the heart attacks, brain injuries and the like that often happen when the body goes through a major failure. This would give medical staff a lot more time than they have now to stabilize a patient.
The particles are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids, a natural molecule that usually stores energy or serves as a component to cell membranes. Lipids can be waxes, some vitamins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids, or—as in this case—fats.
These fatty oxygen particles are about two to four micrometers in size. They are suspended in a liquid solution that can be easily carried and used by paramedics, emergency crews and intensive care personnel. This seemingly magic elixir carries “three to four times the oxygen content of our own red blood cells.”
Animal testing has apparently been quite successful, but there’s no word yet on humans.
You can read a few more details on it here.