Patients in dire medical need now have a new ally to look to. While not a cure all, artificial blood may just save your life one day. The blood is not a perfect recreation of natural blood, but it is certainly better than always having to rely on blood transfusions. Mainly, synthetic blood can help move oxygen around the body when a patient has lost a significant amount of blood. There are two chief types of artificial blood, HBOCs and PFCs. HBOCs are actually created partly out of natural red blood cells (either human or bovine), bacteria, or human placentas and are almost blood colored. PFCs are entirely synthetic and are a white color similar to milk. Probably the best part of artificial blood is that it is universal, meaning that any patient with any blood type can benefit from synthetic blood. Check out this article for more details on this amazing creation of modern medicine.
Credits:
Wilson, Tracy V. "How Artificial Blood Works." 29 December 2006. HowStuffWorks.com. http://health.howstuffworks.com/artificial-blood.htm 15 July 2009.
While this is a great invention it is all more the reason that each and every capable person should be donating blood. Every time you donate blood you can potentially save 3 lives. Over your lifetime think of the hundreds of people you could help. I actually am donation blood today and everyone else should consider doing so as well.
ReplyDelete~Angela (A Bag of Tricks)
This new blood technology sounds like a big deal. I can foresee artificial blood being very important. At least once a week I see a sign advertising a blood drive and it always seems that the blood supplies are low. Hopefully this technology can help decrease the need for blood and help save many lives at the same time.
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