From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Mon Jul 09 2001 - 05:24:05 MDT
On Sun, 8 Jul 2001, Mike Lorrey wrote:
> Well, the gag reflex is actually different from the problems they have
> with these fluid breathing systems. It seems that the fear of drowning
> induces a significant psychosis in most individuals, which isn't bad if
> done once or twice, but doing it on a daily or weekly basis, apparently,
> according to the backchannel info I've gotten, can build up to permanent
> psychological damage.
Trouble with fluorocarbons, they're twice as dense as water (oof!), and
they supply oxygen just fine -- but are pretty lousy in regards to carbon
dioxide removal. So you need intubation (ever tried it? not my idea of
fun), active fluid transport (and associated baro and volutrauma), and
cycles of air respiration (that's where partial in partial liquid
ventilation comes from).
Also, I've heard of a paper which indicates that fluorocarbon exposures
causes practically permanent, or at least long-term, immunosuppression.
So, it works on paper, it doesn't work too well in practice.
> As you may recall from 'The Abyss', the divers using the fluid systems
> basically had to willfully drown themselves in the hypersaturated
> solution. A similar problem presents itself with any significantly dense
> breathing medium. Drowning is apparently not something the human animal
> has evolved to do on a regular basis. As I said, there is research to
> find drugs to suppress this reflex, as dramamine suppresses motion
> sickness.
>
-- Eugen* Leitl leitl
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