Scientists hope work with poison gas can be a lifesaver

[Ops NCO]

SEATTLE, Washington (CNN) -- A wiry, slightly hunched man presses in a few numbers, the electronic lock gives way with a beep and the group presses into the crowded laboratory, plastered with ominous warnings about toxins and biohazards.
Breathing a small amount of toxic hydrogen sulfide gas put this mouse into a state that looked much like death.




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Guiding the visitors at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center is Mark Roth, a 50-year-old biologist with a tall forehead, thinning red hair and a perpetual wry smile. He asks his assistant, Jennifer Blackwood, if the rat is ready. It is. She turns a dial, and the sealed enclosure starts to fill with poison gas -- hydrogen sulfide. An ounce could kill dozens of people.


The rat sniffs the air a few times, and within a minute, his naturally twitchy movements are almost still. On a monitor that shows his rate of breathing, the lines look like a steep mountain slope, going down.


At first glance, that looks bad. We need oxygen to live. If you don't get it for several minutes -- for example, if you suffer cardiac arrest or a bad gunshot wound -- you die. But something else is going on inside this rat. He isn't dead, isn't dying. The reason why, some people think, is the future of emergency medicine.


You see, Roth thinks he's figured out the puzzle. "While it's true we need oxygen to live, it's also a toxin," he explains. Scientists are starting to understand that death isn't caused by oxygen deprivation itself, but by a chain of damaging chemical reactions that are triggered by sharply dropping oxygen levels.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/10/09...ion/index.html

[david1833]

I don't see how it could save a life. Looks like it would only slow the death process down. The loss of blood is still going to kill you.

[VB]

I don't know. My wife just said that I'm fully of poison gas because I just crop dusted the living room as I walked through it...

[LadyDoc]

Cool stuff.
Sounds a bit like what they've been doing with inducing hypothermia to help reduce brain damage after an anoxic hit like birth trauma or drowning in kids.

....Except now we can just lock them in a small room with VB.

[VB]

Cool stuff.
Sounds a bit like what they've been doing with inducing hypothermia to help reduce brain damage after an anoxic hit like birth trauma or drowning in kids.

....Except now we can just lock them in a small room with VB.

Just give me a big meal of pork and beans and put me to work!

[Bell]

I don't see how it could save a life. Looks like it would only slow the death process down. The loss of blood is still going to kill you.

You just said it. "Looks like it would only slow the death process down". What a wonderful tool!!!

I'll use a soldier for an example.....He's got a throat shot. Blood pumping like crazy and he's going fast. You hook IV's and start pumping fluid and/or blood. Then you put him out with that stuff. The heart slows, the bleeding slows, the IV's are keeping up and you have time to cut him open and repair some of the serious damage. He stays out until you can move him back to the hospital for a major operation.

Without this new stuff he would have died within minutes. Now, you can prolong his life for a few hours.

[david1833]

I see what you mean. Good stuff