Fergie's Tech Blog

Medical Tech: Ethicists Blast Fake Blood Study

An AP newswire article by Lindsey Tanner, via SFGate.com, reports that:

Imagine being in a car crash, lying unconscious and bleeding in an ambulance. With no blood on board, paramedics give you an experimental substitute, but even at the hospital, you get fake blood for several hours before doctors try the real thing.

Medical ethicists say a study that is doing just that on hundreds of trauma patients without their consent should be halted.

It's a renewed attack on research that began in 2004 after Northfield Laboratories got federal approval for its study of the blood substitute Polyheme.

Debate was reignited by a Wall Street Journal story last week that suggested the company tried to hide some crucial details about another blood substitute study back in 2000. The Journal reported that 10 heart surgery patients in that Polyheme experiment had heart attacks, while other patients given real blood did not.

posted by Fergie @ 3/01/2006 04:56:00 PM