Freeze-Dried Blood May Save Soldiers' Lives

SpaceAdmiral writes "An Israeli company is working on a method to freeze-dry blood. This would enable soldiers to carry a packet of their own blood on the battlefield. If a soldier is injured and needs blood, medics could mix the dried blood with water and give the soldier a transfusion of his or her own blood. From the article: 'The idea is to take a soldier's blood, freeze it in laboratory conditions, take out the ice crystals leaving only the blood components. It will look like freeze-dried coffee in a little bag.'"

Works great, until you add confusion & nature

[sco08y]

So you're going to have a little baggy with a sticker.

If they're smart, they'll make sure that blood has to go into containers with the blood type in big letters, so that even if they get mixed up you can look at your dog tags to be sure you're not getting the wrong type of blood.

Then you also need clean water...

Today, when soldiers are wounded in action and need a blood transfusion in the battlefield or out in the field, military medics and doctors usually give them a transfusion of water and salt.

I just got done with CLS yesterday. The IV bag we use is a 500 ml bag; works great for a hangover. I guess you could mix the saline solution with this stuff but you still need a container to mix it in.

But it's hard enough to give someone an IV... now, by the time you were doing the transfusion you'd already have a saline lock in them. But imagine having to mix this stuff up and get it into a practical container while someone's going into shock.

Re:Two technologies

[theelectron]

So, if you were passed out from a heart attack and couldn't give anyone 'consent' and an EMS rolls up with paramedics who are certified in CPR they wouldn't be saving the person's life, they would be "using CPR on a victim without their permission"?

Battlefield lifesaver

[konigstein]

As a soldier, I would be ecstatic if this were to work as it should. I've stabilized many good friends who got plasma and blood just in a knick of time, because none was immediately available.

Re:Two technologies

[jnik]

Implied consent means that if you're so incapacitated you can't refuse treatment, a trained individual may treat you according to training. That's a little different from trials of an unapproved substance--to extend your analogy, it's closer to rolling up with a class of EMT's-in-training.

Re:Two technologies

[SpeedBump0619]

Hey I can play that game too:

So, instead of "used on accident victims without their permission" what you advocate is "withheld from dying people because they couldn't say yes."

Explain to me how that's better. I agree that oversight is needed for such a program. But the rules of the program only allow it in critical cases where no alternative is available. The only thing that bothers me about it is the continuation of its use once in the hospital.

If you are going to complain about this trial, don't just take one aspect of it in isolation and whine about that. Yes, no prior consent is received...but it only matters in cases where option 'b' is die.

Eh...

[oofoe]

Speaking specifically about Israel's and neighbors current shenanigans, forget about the soldiers, let's save some civilians! Hmph.

Re:Two technologies

[Anonymous Coward]

Explain to me how that's better. I agree that oversight is needed for such a program. But the rules of the program only allow it in critical cases where no alternative is available. The only thing that bothers me about it is the continuation of its use once in the hospital.

If you are going to complain about this trial, don't just take one aspect of it in isolation and whine about that. Yes, no prior consent is received...but it only matters in cases where option 'b' is die.

Look, fucktard: if you're going to administer an accepted and approved medication/blood infusion when somebody is incapacitated that's one thing, but you don't go beta testing in the field just since your testee can't say "no". If option 'b' is to die, then it's tough shit. Neither you, nor the hospital, nor the manufacturer have the right to say "well hell, they're gonna bite it anyway.. guinea pig time". It's an ethics issue, one that you obviously don't grok.

Somebody ought to be sued SHITLESS, from the EMT and hospital up to those sanctioning the testing.

 

Minute Maid Orange Juice

[pacalis]

This is what National Research Corporation, an MIT incubator, aimed to do in the 1940s ... It didn't work then becuase the cells wouldn't survive, but maybe they can aim for some good OJ. http://www.minutemaid.com/aboutus/history.shtml [minutemaid.com]