Left between life and death: First 'suspended animation' trials set to begin in bid to buy time for stabbing and gunshot victims

• U.S. medics developing the technique to buy time in treating lethal wounds
• Blood will be replaced with saline and bodies cooled to 10C
• Trial to take place later this month at Pittsburgh and Maryland hospitals

By MARK PRIGG

PUBLISHED: 16:53 GMT, 26 May 2014 | UPDATED: 19:07 GMT, 26 May 2014

It sounds like something out of Star Wars - doctors are attempting to save the lives of ten patients by putting them in ‘suspended animation’, when they are neither alive or dead.

Surgeons at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh will cool down the patients so their blood cells need less oxygen to survive.

While the body is in this state, the team will work to fix the 'structural problems' caused by a blade or a bullet.

The trial will take place later this month and the surgeons are already on call at the hospital, primed for when a suitable patient arrives.

Because the patients will be unable to give consent to the procedure, researchers have been running a publicity campaign to allow potential patients to opt out. 

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