Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Presbyterian Hospital are going to put humans into suspended animation for the first time, as part of an experimental new practice to keep victims of physical trauma alive by freezing them. Ten patients with otherwise fatal wounds from stabbings or shootings will be chosen to participate in the study.

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Presbyterian Hospital are going to put humans into suspended animation for the first time, as part of an experimental new practice to keep victims of physical trauma alive by freezing them.

Ten patients who have suffered cardiac arrest after traumatic injuries such as stabbings or shootings will be chosen to participate in the study.

Statistics show that there is one of these kind of patients every month, and they usually have a survival rate of under 7 percent.

All of the patients’ blood will be removed and replaced with a cold saline solution, which slows down bodily function and decreases the need for oxygen.

Doctor Samuel Tisherman, the surgeon who will lead the trial, is quoted as saying: “We are suspending life, but we don't like to call it suspended animation because it sounds like science fiction. So we call it emergency preservation and resuscitation.”

The same method of cooling down the body to treat a fatal wound was successfully performed on pigs in a different study, with a 90 percent survival rate for the subjects that were re-warmed at a medium rate.

Doctors already use a similar procedure to decrease the temperature of patients’ body parts during surgery to suspend the blood flow.