The Victorian doctor who saved a woman's life using a transfusion of synthetic blood, says the product can help address the shortage of stock in regional Victoria and also address the imbalance in life expectancy between the city and the country.Professor Mark Fitzgerald, who was raised in Teddywaddy West, south of Wycheproof in the state's north-west, faced with losing a patient who was unable to accept human blood transfusions due to religious beliefs had to get a blood substitute from the United States.
The director of trauma services at the Alfred hospital said he only knew about the existence of the synthetic blood, which is derived from cow blood, because he'd been involved in trials of the product in the US.
He said it was not a substitute for the real thing, but could go a long way towards addressing blood bank shortages.
"Half the people who die from injury die from blood lost," Professor Fitzgerald said.
"Our blood supplies aren't infinite and sometimes difficult to access and they need to be stored, the need to be refrigerated, they've only got a certain shelf life - essentially whole blood is only good for about a month.
"This product just carries haemoglobin, it doesn't need to be cross-matched, it can be left on the shelf for three years so it can have its advantages - particularly in the areas where you don't have very good or rapid access to blood."
Source http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2011/05/05/3209041.htm?site=ballarat
