(Newswire.net — November 28, 2014) — Washington, DC. – Some of the greatest inventions ever have been developed for use in warfare. For example, the Internet was developed as a communication tool for the US forces.
These days, technology is present in the military more than ever. Unmanned vehicles and supreme weaponry are a trademark of US forces, however, it is not all about Hi-Tech weapons, some of the Pentagon’s fundings go towards the development of new lifesaving technologies.
That is exactly the case with a new ‘hibernation drug’ developed for the Pentagon by an Australian researcher.
Dr. Geoffrey Dobson of Queensland’s James Cook University and the Division of Tropical Health and Medicine is developing a new drug that could help save lots of lives by providing additional time for critically wounded soldiers to receive the necessarymedical attention. It’s during this time before they can get to a hospital that many soldiers die.
“During the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, more than 87 percent of all deaths among allied soldiers occurred in the first 30 minutes, before they could get to a hospital,” Dr. Dobson told an Australian news website Wednesday.
“Nearly a quarter of these, almost a thousand people, were classified as having potentially survivable wounds. Time was the killer. The idea of our research is to save these thousand lives,” Dr. Dobson said.
According to Dr. Dobson, the drug changes the human body’s normal response to shock by putting it in the state similar to a deep sleep. In the same time, it provides enough blood pressure to vital organs keeping wounded soldiers alive.
“You want to stabilize the system because of the long retrieval times in forward areas for these special operations soldiers,” Dr. Dobson said.
“We increase the blood pressure to a low ‘optimal’ level sufficient for survival, we reduce inflammation and we correct the blood coagulation — this prevents it from getting thinner.”
The drug is in the experimental phase, however, the Pentagon, impressed with the initial results of Dr. Dobson’s research, granted him $550,000 to perfect his treatment.
Dr. Dobson believes the drug will be ready for in vivo tests next year.