In 1969, medical researchers at NASA’s Ames Research
Center were referred an unusual patient: a local California woman who had
given birth to a healthy baby, but who kept hemorrhaging dangerous amounts of
blood.
While doctors at Stanford University
Hospital gave the hemorrhage patient a blood transfusion, engineers at the
space agency brainstormed solutions to stop the bleeding. They decided to try
an anti-gravity suit—typically used to keep astronauts from blacking out during
extreme acceleration by squeezing the arms and legs to push blood back towards
the head—to apply external pressure to the woman’s lower body and drive blood
upward. It was a success, and the woman’s life was saved.
Soon after, a version of the suit was
created for battlefield injuries affecting the lower body. The half-suit was
applied as an emergency rescue measure to stabilize
soldiers suffering from shock.
In 2001, Stanford obstetrician Paul
Hensleigh tested the garment, but with elastic compression instead of a
pneumatic pressure, in a hospital setting: he was able to save the
lives of 13 out of 14 patients in shock from extreme blood loss in a
facility in Pakistan.
Taking inspiration from NASA and
Hensleigh’s research, Suellen Miller, the founder of University of California
San Francisco’s Safe Motherhood
Program, set out to adapt the technology to treat new mothers who slip into
shock due to excessive bleeding. It’s a particular problem in the developing
world, where postpartum hemorrhage (PPH)—loss of more than 500
milliliters of blood after the birth of a baby—accounts for up to 60%
of maternal mortality cases. Continue here to read more
News credit : Quartz
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