Friday, April 5, 2019

Zero-G Blood And The Many Horrors Of Space Surgery

In Expanse Season 3 Episode 11 "Fallen World", a medic described the risks of injury in microgravity. He said, "there is nothing you can do for the wounded in zero G except ease their pain. Without gravity, wounds can't drain. Blood pools and clots, tissue swells, any internal bleeding in a death sentence." I wondered if there were medical studies that supported this theory. Here's what I found.

Source: Vice

no astronaut has ever had a major injury or needed surgery in space. If humans ever again venture past low Earth orbit and outward toward, say, Mars, someone is going to get hurt

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In space, blood can splatter even more than it usually does on Earth, unconstrained by gravity. Or it can pool into a kind of dome around a wound or incision, making it hard to see the actual trauma. (Fun fact: If you are bleeding more than 100 milliliters per minute, you are probably doomed.)