Back From the Dead

Resuscitation science has come a long way over the years, and some would say its still in its infancy.

A fantastic BBC Horizon documentary featuring Anaesthetist Kevin Fong investigates the pioneering technique of extreme cooling and the implementation of  therapeutic hypothermia. These techniques in the treatment  of cardiac arrest, trauma victims and other medical conditions have yielded surprising, almost miraculous, results. Therapeutic hypothermia has the potential to be one of medicine’s greatest discoveries, and has finally entered mainstream medicine as the standard of care in post-cardiac arrest management.

Resources:

• Check out Scott Weingart’s NYC Hypothermia Resource Page — your one-stop shop for all you’d ever want to know about therapeutic hypothermia.

Take Home point:

• Remember: ”We don’t often see what we do downstairs makes a huge difference upstairs.”