- Scientists have created eerie zombie dogs, reanimating
the canines after several hours of clinical death in attempts to develop
suspended animation for humans. US scientists have succeeded in reviving
the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials
on humans within years.
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- Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research
has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood
and filled with an ice-cold salt solution.
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- The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they
stop breathing and have no heartbeat or brain activity.
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- But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the
zombie dogs are brought back to life with an electric shock.
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- Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised
within a year, according to the Safar Centre.
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- However rather than sending people to sleep for years,
then bringing them back to life to benefit from medical advances, the boffins
would be happy to keep people in this state for just a few hours,
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- But even this should be enough to save lives such as
battlefield casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who
have suffered huge blood loss.
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- During the procedure blood is replaced with saline solution
at a few degrees above zero. The dogs' body temperature drops to only 7C,
compared with the usual 37C, inducing a state of hypothermia before death.
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- Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues
and organs are perfectly preserved.
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- Damaged blood vessels and tissues can then be repaired
via surgery. The dogs are brought back to life by returning the blood to
their bodies,giving them 100 per cent oxygen and applying electric shocks
to restart their hearts.
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- Tests show they are perfectly normal, with no brain damage.
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- "The results are stunning. I think in 10 years we
will be able to prevent death in a certain segment of those using this
technology," said one US battlefield doctor.
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- Copyright 2005 News Limited.
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- http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15739502-13762,00.html
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