Transfusion of Synthetic Blood Saves Woman's Life

Transfusion of Synthetic Blood Saves Woman's Life

A synthetic blood substitute is something of a holy grail in medical research. Many potential synthetics have been tried--DARPA has even put a blood substitute before the FDA--but most have been disappointingly ineffective. So it’s pretty significant that an experimental synthetic blood substitute derived from cow plasma has brought an Australian woman back from the brink of death.

Tamara Coakley arrived at a Melbourne hospital very bad shape. A car accident left her with a damaged spinal cord, collapsed lungs, a fractured skull and various traumatic injuries. It also left her clinging to life with a dangerously low amount of blood in her body, too little to oxygenate her tissues effectively.

Complicating matters further, Coakley’s religion dictated that she could not receive blood transfusions (synthetics, however, do not carry such a taboo). So in an 11th hour bid to save her life, a synthetic known as HBOC201--a hemoglobin-based oxygen-carrying synthetic containing a molecule derived from cow plasma--was flown to Australia from the U.S. and 10 units were injected into Coakley’s body. Against the odds, she recovered.

Clink link above for more information..

This is a HUGE step forward in this area. As the article states, finding a synthetic blood is the holy grail of many scientists, and it looks like Austrailian scientists may have just hit pay dirt.

The other intresting part is a synthetic blood does not violate some religious tenets that come attached to a blood transfusion.

Another step forward.... Science is awesome.

Hmm this is interesting, and taken directly from a really crappy Vampire show that will go unnamed because I hate every second if it with every ounce of my being.

this really changes things. This coupled with the new method of "growing" organs, removing all material but the base "scaffold" then introducing it into the patient. Since it's merely a scaffold, the body can not reject it.

Medical advancements like this really restore my faith in humanity. We might just have a chance

reply to post by phishyblankwaters


I agree... I always thought science would be the field that divides humanity, based on what type of destruction we can come up with.

With more discoveries like this and the others, maybe it will be what gets us over that hump and binds us together.

Wow that's awesome. I guess when we all turn into vampires like on the movie "Daybreakers" we will have our synthetic blood resource . Just kidding, but this is great news. Medical news jsut seems to be getting better and better each day.

reply to post by Xcathdra


That is some pretty advanced stuff
10 units of blood? Thats a pretty substantial amount! If by 10 units they mean 10 bags.
I think this would be great for disaster areas and 3rd world countries, So many people in africa have HIV so 'clean' blood is not something that is easy to get a hold of.

S&F for sharing!
I learned something today.

OnlyLove