Australian woman the first to be saved with synthetic blood

An Australian woman's life has been saved using a radical synthetic blood substitute made from cow plasma.

In a world first, doctors at The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne brought 33-year-old Tamara Coakley back from the brink after a car crash left her with severe blood loss and close to heart failure.

She was barely alive when she arrived at hospital. "I had one liter of blood left in my body," she said.

In a last-ditch effort to save Ms Coakley's life, 10 units of the haemoglobin-based oxygen carrier HBOC201 were flown in from the US.

Full Story