Fainting and the Chilean miners

I wonder how they're doing today?

Amplify’d from www.altmeds.com

Space scientist's advice kept Chilean miners from fainting

When rescuers needed to determine how to safely extract Chilean miners without their fainting and suffering a potentially devastating loss of blood to the brain, they turned to a scientist whose expertise typically is focused on astronauts in space.   Dr. Benjamin Levine, the cardiovascular team leader for the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and two NASA flight surgeon colleagues created the protocols for the men’s safe return to the surface. The biggest health concern as the retrieval operation commenced was that men would faint during the long ride to the surface. The rescue capsule wasn’t wide enough for a passenger to lie down in, and it was feared that the heart of a miner who had fainted might not be able to pump blood up to the brain.   One of the protocols he suggested was making the men cross their legs and having them squeeze their thighs and buttocks together in order to push blood back up to their hearts on the ride to the surface. The men wore compression stockings and were trained to cough heartily along the way if they got lightheaded, to help force blood to the brain.   Dr. Levine is the principal investigator of the largest outside grant on the effects of long duration space flight on the cardiovascular system and has done other consulting work for NASA. He has participated in rescue clinics in the high altitudes of Nepal and Alaska.   Source: Health News Digest Read more at www.altmeds.com

 

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