BALTIMORE— Doctors have put at least one human in suspended animation, the New Scientist reports.<br /><br />They performed it as part of a trial to save gunshot or stabbing victims who may have minutes to live.<br /><br />Maryland University researcher Samuel Tisherman told the New Scientist that traumatic injuries could result in massive blood loss and then cardiac arrest, robbing the brain of oxygen.<br /><br />Irreversible damage would occur to the brain within five minutes and the patient's survival rate is less than five percent, according to the New Scientist.<br /><br />Tisherman said that the emergency preservation and resuscitation technique, or EPR, replaces all of the patient's blood with ice-cold saline solution.<br /><br />The researcher explained that EPR reduces the need for oxygen by cooling the body and brain, which gives surgeons two hours to repair the injuries.<br /> <br />According to Tisherman, the trial will compare EPR's results on a group of ten patients to a control group. Both groups will be treated at the university's hospital.
