July 10, 2012 When people stop breathing, they need oxygen fast.
New technology could make it possible to get it to them – by
bypassing the lungs. BOB HIRSHON (host): Injectable oxygen…I’m
Bob Hirshon and this is Science Update. Our cells need oxygen to
carry out basic functions. But when patients can’t breathe,
emergency personnel have few options for getting them the oxygen
they need before vital organs shut down. Oxygen isn’t just in
the air we breathe, however, and researchers are now testing a
novel way to get oxygen to patients fast – through their veins.
Boston Children’s Hospital translational scientist John Kheir
says that rodents can normally only survive for 5 to 10 minutes
without oxygen. But this wasn’t the case when he and his
colleagues injected tiny microbubbles filled with oxygen into
their veins. JOHN KHEIR (Boston Children’s Hospital): When we
treated them with the drug that we have created, those animals
survived for 15 minutes, reasonably intact. Kheir says the new
technology could one da