X-Message-Number: 26411
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2005 18:37:47 -0400
From: Joseph Bloch <>
Subject: Boffins create zombie dogs

If you get around the sensationalism (and boy, is it thick!), this is
really pretty amazing.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,15739502-13762,00.html

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.

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.

The animals are considered scientifically dead, as they stop breathing
and have no heartbeat or brain activity.

But three hours later, their blood is replaced and the zombie dogs are
brought back to life with an electric shock.

Plans to test the technique on humans should be realised within a year,
according to the Safar Centre.

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,

But even a this should be enough to save lives such as battlefield
casualties and victims of stabbings or gunshot wounds, who have suffered
huge blood loss.

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.

Although the animals are clinically dead, their tissues and organs are
perfectly preserved.

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.

Tests show they are perfectly normal, with no brain damage.

"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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