Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Attention Doctor Frankenstein

A few months ago my cousins significant "other" had a work accident that cut off the top of his finger. It was reattached and I've been following the recovery via phone and e-mail. I'm sorry it's so painfully irritating for him but I find it fascinating. The other day she told me about how they're using some kind of silver to help with the healing, and today I looked up the process so I could learn about it. Here's what I learned:

His finger has been wrapped in a silver-coated fabric, and a miniature battery is attached. This causes a flow of silver ions that encourages the skin to grow and kills the bacteria that prevents skin regeneration and nerve function. This treatment was developed by Mountain Medical Specialties, and has been used to successfully grow new skin. It has been used on many accident victims, restoring the natural skin patterns including finger prints and sensation.

There's also a clothing fabric called DermaSmart, that has silver embedded in it to prevent the growth of bacteria and odor, and is supposed to be good for people suffering from eczema or psoraisis. I think it should be used in all clothing worn by teenage boys.

I also hear that something called QuikClot is being used on battle fields in Iraq and Afghanistan to stop soldiers from bleeding to death. Apparently it works by absorbing liquid from the blood and encouraging it to clot, but it has a nasty side effect of burning the skin. They found that by adding silver to the stuff, it will slow down the rate of heat released from the chemical reaction, minimizing the burn as well as providing the afore mentioned anti-bacterial properties. That must be why the price of silver has tripled this year.

Poor Jason. I guess if this works out, he won't be getting any dismembership claim money from workmans comp. What's a finger going for these days I wonder? Maybe I should ask Anna Ayala.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The folks who manufacture QuikClot just launched a new formulation, QuikClot 1st Response, that eliminates the potential for an excess heat spike that could happen with improper usage in earlier product versions. In addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, QuikClot products are in use by law enforcement, EMTs, Fire Rescue and other first responders around the country.

Anonymous said...

QuikClot has been documented with saving over 100
lives since its introduction four years ago. No doubt the actual number is probably ten times that. While the original product had a variable and unpredictable temperature spike depending on the ratio of blood to QuikClot, in a retrospective analysis of 103 patients burns only occurred in 3 cases.
The manufacturuer, Z-Medica Corp., has released two new versions of QuikClot that no longer have the temperature spike, yet maintain the original efficacy.
Thanks for your cool story.

Donna Piranha said...

Thanks for the updates Anon's. Feel free to leave your name next time.

Anonymous said...

I think Anon works for Z-Medica Corp. which could be cool.

Anonymous said...

They put that stuff on my finger when I cut the corner off. Worked pretty darn, ummmmm, weird.

Donna Piranha said...

Great minds think alike Lala, as usual. SWIC, with bold emphasis on the S today.

Anonymous said...

I too cut the tip of my my index finger off. More like the face of the tip. You could totally see the vain squirting blood out. But they used the coagulant powder on me and it was fast. It dried up into what looked like a little dried poop smear on the tip of my finger. It didn't fall off until it was done healing. I actually played a gig with it on there.

Donna Piranha said...

What's with all you tards cutting off the tops of your fingers?

Anonymous said...

I did it to impress you!