Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Quick Medical Question

Regarding H.R.G., doesn't a blood transfusion require, you know, a heartbeat?

I've got a No-Prize answer or two ready, sure, but that seems like a pretty basic error. I wonder what Polite Scott would say.

4 comments:

Erin Palette said...

Except for the fact that it was previously established in Season 1 that Claire's power will revive her even when she's clinically dead (the branch through the neck episode).

So normally I'd agree with you, but since there's already precedent for it I'd argue that the only thing which is necessary is for the blood to actually be in the body and it takes over from there, like good little nanobots.

Tom Foss said...

Although Claire's tissues are already saturated with her blood, so it wouldn't have to travel to start healing. If HRG was getting a transfusion through arteries in his arm, unless his blood were pumping, it seems like they'd be staying there, and not getting to the brain, for instance, which seemed to be key to Claire (and Peter) healing effectively.

I'll wait another day or so for comments before I go ahead and post my potential explanations; I do think you're onto something there, Erin.

Anonymous said...

It can go either way. Certainly, a heart beat (and a pumping heart) is needed to circulate blood ...

but

...if the reason the heart is not beating is because of massive blood loss, restoring the blood volume is a necessary first step in restoring the heart beat (the second, of course, would be to stop the bleeding).

Erin Palette said...

Good point, Scott.

Anyone recall if he had electrodes on chest while he was in the lab/hospital/thing? Because all you need is a basic electrical impulse and you can FORCE the heart to pump.