Shrimp-Based Bandages Save Lives

Roland Piquepaille writes "Unstoppable bleeding is one of the leading causes of death on battlefields. But now, soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have a way to reduce bleeding when they're wounded. In "War Bandages," ScienCentral News writes that these new bandages contain chitosan molecules, extracted from shrimp shells. These positively charged chitosan molecules attract negatively charged red blood cells, stopping hemorrhage in one to five minutes. As said one of the co-founders of the Oregon-based company behind these bandages, "You can have a hole in your heart and 60 seconds later it's sealed." The Food and Drug Administration approved these bandages for human usage, but today they are exclusively sold to the Army. With a $90 price tag for a 4-inch-by-4-inch single bandage, would you buy them anyway? This overview contains more details and references. It also shows you how the red blood cells are attracted by the chitosan molecules."

Comments

Re:Handy and effective way to stop bleeding

[titzandkunt]

Why don't you read some of the reasons why meds are so expensive?

Apologies for the length of this quote from the above link, but I think it's worth reading (Steve Harris MD on medical costs and litigation):

"...You [correspondent] were complaining about the cost of American medical care not long ago. You are clueless as to the connection here. Drugs cost more here. Medicine costs more here. A lawyer costs more here. An artitect costs more here. Each of these things has reasons. Until you step away from medicine and see the big picture, you'll never figure it out...

... And that's not even the worst part. The worst part is what you don't see. The products that are never developed, or developed too late to help people, because everyone is afraid that somebody will get hurt, and sue. In the case of vaccines it got so bad that without DIRECT government intervention to hamstring the civil litigation process, you would not today be able to buy a dose of vaccine in the United States for love or money. The very last couple of makers were getting set to leave the U.S. market and sell only overseas, before the government stepped in and stopped an out of control civil litigation process...

...For less obvious things than vaccines and aircraft, FYI, the government does not step in, and the product you don't know about simply ceases to exist. If you need a lung lavage of fluorocarbon to save your life if you have lung damage from a fire or shock, you're not going to get it. 3M, which makes most of these chemicals, quite deliberately got out of the medical market years ago, after the Dow Corning Silicone suit. So you're out of luck. You won't know why, but that won't change a thing. If your heart valve fails, you'll never know that it might not have, if the suture 3M made for that purpose, in a little tiny subdivision of the company, was still available. But it's not, since a giant company like 3M has deep pockets, and they don't need the medical market liability grief. Now, it's YOUR problem."

T&K.