Legitimate, human trial suspended animation: Coming soon to Boston! What a lucky boy I am to have such mind-bending near-sci-fi research being conducted almost in my backyard, over at Massachusetts General Hospital.


It's true! Human trials for a cutting-edge suspended animation surgical treatment are all but set to begin at MGH. It's an incredible process that will see human beings (who have suffered trauma) cooled to the point of near-death using cooled saline solution, so that they can potentially survive longer and get the treatment they need in the OR:

The cold treatment, which is being developed at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and is featured in a BBC Two Horizon documentary, will see patient's bodies being cooled to as low as 10 degrees C. The normal human body temperature is 37 degrees C and usually humans quickly die if the core body temperature drops below 22 degrees C. - The Telegraph


Dr. Hasan Alam, the man leading this research at Massachusetts General Hospital, is so optimistic about the effectiveness of the freezing technique that he now believes 90% of "certain death" trauma cases (horrific auto accidents, et al) can be saved once human trials are completed, with no side effects whatsoever:

"The body is essentially in real life suspended animation with no pulse, no blood pressure, no electrical waves in the brain." he told the Telegraph. "We didn't find any evidence of functional impairment after the surgery."

Aliens sleep chambers this development certainly isn't, but that's ok. This is wild enough already. [Telegraph]