User:Christina Albanesius/Suspended animation

Ideas to add to my article:


 * 1) EPR, Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation, like Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (better know as CPR) is a way to slow the bodily processes that would lead to death in cases of severe injury.
 * 2) EPR involves lowering the body's temperature below the threshold for therapeutic hypothermia which is 94 dergees Fahrenheit.

Assignment 5:

While it may seem like the stuff of science fiction, EPR, Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation, like Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (better known as CPR) is a way to slow the bodily processes that would lead to death in cases of severe injury. (1) In cases of cardiac arrest or where a person has suddenly stopped breathing on their own, CPR is typically administered to supplement the affected person’s blood flow and breathing. (2) This is done to prevent organ death and to get the person breathing and their heart beating. But in cases of severe trauma where a person may die for lack of adequate time to get to a trauma center EPR can be used to slow down the processes that would otherwise lead to death. (1) How it works is really quite simple in theory and hopefully practice one day. A physician or ER trained specialist would administer saline that has been super chilled directly into the main artery of the heart and would continue to do so until the patient’s body temperature reached temps anywhere from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. (1) By doing this the patient’s brain function and blood circulation would slow down to the point where a surgeon would have enough time to perform the necessary life-saving procedures on the patient. Afterward, the patient would be put on a heart-lung machine and given infusions of warm blood so as to slowly bring the patient out of their suspended animation. (1) Very science fiction forward but with real world applications.

This real-world application has been overseen by Dr. Samuel Tisherman of the University of Maryland. (1) Tisherman has been in the field of urgent care for well over 20 and taught at the University of Pittsburgh until 2014. (1) It has been his life’s work and dream to bring suspended animation to fruition through FDA approved trials of EPR; however, the ethics behind suspended animation has been an impediment to his research because the patients Tisherman seeks to treat are close to being clinically dead and can’t possibly give consent to treatment. The FDA rightly has specific rules that must be adhered to as far as what type of experimental care can be given to them. Fortunately, where he works now at the University of Maryland, he has found a home to test his theories to expand on the field of suspended animation. It is a hopeful time but it is not one without drawbacks because while EPR may sound like a miracle treatment from the distant future it is not without it’s potential for harm. While a patient may not experience true frostbite, their tissues are exposed to freezing temperatures that upon warming can be susceptible to “reperfusion: “the paradoxical exacerbation of cellular dysfunction and death, following restoration of blood flow.” (1) Simply put, as blood is returned to the patient’s body the potential for cellular death increases exponentially. Tisherman’s hope is that reperfusion will be something that he can study down the road and hopefully develop drugs to alleviate it’s affects.

Paragraph to add to article:


 * 1)     https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a29860656/first-human-trial-suspended-animation/

2.       https://www.mayoclinic.org/first-aid/first-aid-cpr/basics/art-20056600

Assignment 6 Completed - peer reviewed MacKenzie Maybury's article Sexual Ethics - done 10/16/2020

Assignment 7 - Emailed Wikipedia Staff for review of my article as it has not been peer reviewed as of yet. - done 10/21/2020 The Wiki Ed Staff member I emailed indicated they could not peer review my article. There was automated feedback for my article that indicated more references were needed which is a helpful suggestion. I'll research more to find additional quality resources.

Assignment 8 Completed -  updated this sentence to add years - Tisherman has been in the field of urgent care for well over 20 years and taught at the University of Pittsburgh until 2014. (1)

Also for Assignment 8 some other sources for the article, which I think I will definitely expand on my EPR section.

[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26497780/ 3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26497780/]

4. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.587204

5. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1743919115012790

[https://www.umms.org/-/media/files/ummc/health-services/shock-trauma/epr-community-v8 6. https://www.umms.org/-/media/files/ummc/health-services/shock-trauma/epr-community-v8]

Cardiac arrest and extreme blood loss can lead to organ failure and, ultimately, death. To slow and or stop the process of organ failure EPR is a viable option for those patients who would otherwise would not be able to survive. The success of EPR relies on prompt attention during cardiac arrest or another serious injury. Studies done on dogs have shown that EPR done within 2 to 5 minutes of cardiac arrest the outcome was good with little to no neurological impairment. (4) However, if EPR was done after 8 minutes none of the dogs had favorable outcomes. (4) So timing and urgency is key in critical care situations.

I'll expand on this study investigation and add some other relevant information about the study as well.

Assignment 9 - I am definitely going to add a section on EPR to the Suspended Animation article. It's fascinating science with the potential to save many lives. While it's not the suspended animation that conjures up images of cryo-pods with people in deep sleep hibernation it is as close as we are going to get to that in this century.

Assignment 11 - This revision includes the reworking of the article addition to account for the EPR study done in 2006 and to correct the flow of the overall article addition.

While it may seem like the stuff of science fiction, EPR, Emergency Preservation and Resuscitation, like Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (better known as CPR) is a way to slow the bodily processes that would lead to death in cases of severe injury. (1) In cases of cardiac arrest or where a person has suddenly stopped breathing on their own, CPR is typically administered to supplement the affected person’s blood flow and breathing. (2) This is done to prevent organ death and to get the person breathing and their heart beating. But in cases of severe trauma where a person may die for lack of adequate time to get to a trauma center EPR can be used to slow down the processes that would otherwise lead to death. (1) How it works is really quite simple in theory and hopefully practice one day. A physician or ER trained specialist would administer saline that has been super chilled directly into the main artery of the heart and would continue to do so until the patient’s body temperature reached temps anywhere from 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit. (1) By doing this the patient’s brain function and blood circulation would slow down to the point where a surgeon would have enough time to perform the necessary life-saving procedures on the patient. Afterward, the patient would be put on a heart-lung machine and given infusions of warm blood so as to slowly bring the patient out of their suspended animation. (1)

In cases of cardiac arrest and extreme blood loss both can lead to organ failure and, ultimately, death. So, timing and urgency is key in critical care situations. To slow and or stop the process of organ failure EPR is a viable option for those patients who would otherwise would not be able to survive. The success of EPR relies on prompt attention during cardiac arrest or another serious injury. Studies done on dogs have shown that the outcome was good with little to no neurological impairment when EPR was performed within 2 to 5 minutes of cardiac arrest. (2) However, if EPR was done after 8 minutes none of the dogs had favorable outcomes. (2) This study was originally published in the American Heart Association’s Circulation Journal in April 2006. It was designed to simulate both typical military as well as civilian trauma. To do so the study was done in three phases. First, severe blood loss was induced by cuts made to the dog’s neck and groin to simulate extreme trauma that would lead to cardiac arrest. (2) Second, at two minutes after cardiac arrest the dogs were administered, “an aortic flush of 20 L of 2°C saline” via a cannula placed at the right femoral artery. (2) Finally, in the third phase delayed resuscitation was performed which included a two-hour cardiopulmonary by-pass as well as 72 to 96 hours of intensive care. (2) It was found that dogs that received only CPR during this process all died. Conversely, those dogs that received EPR did better across the board in regaining neurological function and overall survival. So, EPR, while very science fiction forward has actual real-world applications.

This real-world application has been overseen by Dr. Samuel Tisherman of the University of Maryland. (1) Tisherman has been in the field of urgent care for well over 20 years and taught at the University of Pittsburgh until 2014. (1) It has been his life’s work and dream to bring suspended animation to fruition through FDA approved trials of EPR; however, the ethics behind suspended animation has been an impediment to his research because the patients Tisherman seeks to treat are close to being clinically dead and can’t possibly give consent to treatment. The FDA rightly has specific rules that must be adhered to as far as what type of experimental care can be given to them. Fortunately, where he works now at the University of Maryland, he has found a home to test his theories to expand on the field of suspended animation. It is a hopeful time but it is not one without drawbacks because while EPR may sound like a miracle treatment from the distant future it is not without it’s potential for harm. While a patient may not experience true frostbite, their tissues are exposed to freezing temperatures that upon warming can be susceptible to “reperfusion: “the paradoxical exacerbation of cellular dysfunction and death, following restoration of blood flow.” (1) Simply put, as blood is returned to the patient’s body the potential for cellular death increases exponentially. Tisherman’s hope is that reperfusion will be something that he can study down the road and hopefully develop drugs to alleviate it’s affects.

(1)      https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a29860656/first-human-trial-suspended-animation/

(2)      https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.105.587204

Assignment 12 - Expand on your article with your own perspective and further research. The following will go after the 3rd paragraph in my article addition.

Not exactly the stuff of a science fiction movie where there are cryo-tubes filled with individuals in deep sleep for hundreds of years. None-the-less, EPR is very much a suspension of the animation of a person even if only for a few hours. What is so very fascinating about EPR is that it has the potential to save countless lives if it can be brought down to scale. Currently as it stands EPR takes great skill and precision to be able to cool a trauma patient’s blood enough to induce hypothermia to the point that brain function and blood loss cease; however, if it can be perfected and made more readily available the possibility to save many more lives that would be lost if only there were a few more precious minutes would become a reality.