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Shrimp Bandages Clot Blood Faster

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the underwater-allies dept.

dwbryson writes "A new bandage technology uses ground up shrimp shells to instantly clot blood when applied to an open wound. These new bandages were developed and are being produced exclusively for the military (at $100 for a 4x4" square), but the company who makes them is hoping to mass market them to general consumers."

7 of 384 comments (clear)

  1. I'll take a box! by CrazyTalk · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As someone who has been on blood thinners (due to a blood clot in my leg) for the past two years, exessive bleeding is always danger if I get cut. Bandages like these could literally be a lifesaver. I hope they make it to civilian applications soon.

  2. Re:PETA's going to have a cow by RiffRafff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Well, they won't have the cow, they'll treat it nicely."

    Doubtful.

    http://www.petakillsanimals.com/news.cfm

    --
    "I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
  3. Re:PETA's going to have a cow by RiffRafff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Read the articles. PETA "euthanized" healthy animals enroute from the vet's clinic, before heading back to PETA. Adoption placement there is about 14%. The SPCA's placement rate in the same area is 66-73% (depending on which SPCA location you compare). Now we know why.

    "The PETA employees were caught allegedly dumping the carcasses on Wednesday, June 15, after other dead animals -- enclosed in plastic bags -- were found dumped in the same spot on at least three preceding Wednesdays."

    --
    "I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
  4. Shellfish allergies by mindslip · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My wife is deathly allergic to shellfish... even a drop of oil flicked off a lobster claw cracking open across the table will give her huge hives if it hits her skin.

    Obviously she wears a Medical Alert bracelet for this... what are the effects of this bandage on allergies? Since it goes directly on a wound/into the blood, I'd assume it could be near-instantly fatal to some.

    mindslip

  5. Why so expensive? by titzandkunt · · Score: 4, Interesting


    Since the article is recycled, allow me to recycle my post from the last time this exact same subject was discussed on slashdot.

    Read about some of the reasons why meds are so expensive [yarchive.net].

    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 [Steve's 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.

    --
    Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable...
  6. Re:Quote from TFA by Q-Hack! · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, the Military is bound by the Geneva convention which states that we have to use full metal jacket rounds. They are designed to penetrate straight through the body leaving just a small hole. Hollow points and shrapnel rounds are illegal to use. They even make sure that the speed at which the round leaves the rifle is high enough so that the round doesn't start to tumble before a given distance. All the countries that abide by the Geneva convention follow these rules. Those countries that don't will fire anything they can get there hands on.

    Now land mines and hand grenades are a different story.

    --
    Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
  7. Re:Quote from TFA by Nikkos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So completely incorrect you should be modded down.

    there are no hollowed out sections section on the xm193 bullet. It is a .22 caliber fmj bullet that does not tumble, alter trajectories, or mystically wound the enemy using voodoo. They expand minimally if at all.

    The bullets used in wars governed by the Geneva Convention are less lethal than the bullets used by hunters (soft-lead nosed bullets that mushroom)