By: Hannah Yang

Recently, a team of scientists from Yale University has worked on reviving pigs that have been dead for hours by pumping synthetic fluids through the bodies of the pigs. As a result of the new technology and research methods, scientists learned they could restart the pig hearts to pump.

ECMO sent another group of pigs, and scientists underwent the same process of oxygenating the blood outside the pig’s body. After the 6-hour trial, the scientists reported that the pigs had a sufficient level of oxygen in their bodies due to the technology and restored the principal organs of the pig’s body, like the heart, liver, and kidneys.

“Another attention-grabbing result from the experiment — one that also took the Yale team by surprise — was involuntary movement in the head and neck areas of the dead pigs hooked up to the OrganEx system,” remarked Nenan Sestan, one of the study’s authors commented, “This indicated that some motor functions were preserved, Nenad Sestan, one of the study’s authors, said in the news release.”

The team from Yale University and bioethics experts have emphasized the importance of future research. Scientists will continue testing to examine if healthcare workers can safely use OrganEx on humans. For example, experiments must be able to completely revive multiple organs, not just the simple cell functions.

With the arrival of modern technology, medical workers face challenging decisions that sometimes put the patient at risk. Many scientists and researchers are still trying to find a way to make this method safe for humans, but in the meantime, researchers will continue practicing on animals.

Link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2022/08/04/yale-organex-dead-pigs-revived/