Freezing Out Death
James Turrell’s light prints, a $1 microscope, contamination-detecting chopsticks and more in our weekly look at the web
Over the course of six hours, Patrick Savage experienced seven cardiac arrests with his heart fully stopping for a total of 90 minutes—yet he survived. Doctors used an experimental and possibly revolutionary technique once thought reserved for science fiction: therapeutic hypothermia. Covering Savage’s body in cold packs and pumping chilled saline through his body to draw out any remaining heat slowed his metabolism and halted the brain damage that would normally occur. The technique is continually being refined and physicians have even begun to rethink the state of death as a result. In lab tests, pigs remained “pulseless”—not technically dead—for up to three hours before revival.
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