Rabbits kept alive by oxygen injections  June 28, 2012  Am
injected microparticle (yellow) can hand off oxygen molecules to
red blood cells (red) to carry throughout the body (credit: D.
Kunkel/Dennis Kunkel Microscopy Inc., D. Bell/Harvard
University, J. Kheir/Boston Children’s Hospital, C. Porter/Chris
Porter Illustration)    Oxygenating the blood by bypassing the
lungs in this way could save the lives of people with impaired
breathing or obstructed airways, says John Kheir, a cardiologist
at the Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts, who led the
team.  In the past, doctors have tried to treat low levels of
oxygen in the blood, or hypoxaemia, and related conditions such
as cyanosis, by injecting free oxygen gas directly into the
bloodstream. They had varying degrees of success, says Kheir.
Injected rabbits survived for up to 15 minutes without
breathing, and had normal blood pressure and heart rate. They
showed no indication of heart, lung or liver damage caused by
oxygen deprivation, or of pulmonar