Liquid Air

Imagine a person with pneumonia or in shock. The lungs slowly fill with blood plasma resulting in respiratory failure. In reality the organism is drowning. How do you displace the fluid in the lungs? Gases do not work, but a liquid that is more dense will displace plasma. Now we have a dilemma. If you fill a lung with a fluid won't you will drown the air-breathing organism?

There is an experimental fluid made up of perfluorocarbons. Perfluorocarbons are odorless, colorless, and inert in biological systems. That is not all. They do not mix with water and they will evaporate in air. But it gets better. Perfluorocarbons also readily absorb and exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. So a patient who is having difficulty breathing because of fluid accumulation could be treated with a perfusion of perfluorocarbons. Allowing a patient to obtain oxygen during this difficult time may allow the body heal. Clinical trials with adults and neonatals are beginning. The survival rate for people with diseases resulting in respiratory failure is now zero percent. With perfluorocarbons treatment at least 10% of these persons may survive.