From an article by Katharine Gammon at NBC News:

Blood, blood everywhere — but not a drop when you need it. In the U.S. alone, there are around 17,000 preventable trauma deaths each year due to untreated hemorrhagic shock. Basically, that means someone loses a fatal amount of blood before they can reach the hospital more than 46 times per day.

That’s why scientists have been working for many decades to come up with a substitute for two pressing problems. Paramedics in battlefields and other challenging places need blood for emergency situations, and doctors need a plentiful supply of blood to transfuse into patients with sickle cell disease, many of whom have trouble finding blood donors.

To remedy the transfusion issue, researchers at the U.K.’s National Health Service are launching an ambitious trial this year to test whether blood made from stem cells will act the same way in the body as regular donated blood.

 

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