Carriage House Plans: Bloodless Surgery

Tuesday 27 November 2012

Bloodless Surgery

He founded several bloodless surgery centers in Southern California, including hospitals in Norwalk, Bellflower, and Fountain Valley, and became a tireless advocate of non-blood medical management.In 1980, Lapin was chosen by a Japanese pharmaceutical firm to operate on Jehovah Witness patients, with conditional FDA approval, using Fluosol DA, an "artificial blood" substitute. The unique oxygen-carrying properties of the product were the subject of a segment on the ABC television program "That's Incredible!". During the show, one of Lapin's patients, Donna Graham of Winchester, CA, was shown recovering from an emergency hysterectomy, having received approval for a transfusion of the "artificial blood" due to extreme loss of blood prior to admission. An unusual stunt on the program showed a mouse being immersed in the product, and yet, due to its blood being oxygenated via the fluid, it did not drown. After a tabloid newspaper accused the show of hiding the later death of the mouse, the stunt was repeated on another segment of the program