Massive Blood Loss: Circulatory System Emergencies

Summary: As Dr. Gunther von Hagens makes clear in this program, a shortage of blood can mean insufficient oxygen reaches the major organs-usually resulting in shock and organ failure. The program opens with a graphic bleeding demonstration, re-creating injury to blood vessels in the hand of a cadaver. Von Hagens then examines the consequences of blood loss in the body's vital organs by creating knife-wounds in the torso of a frozen body, then sawing it into slices to reveal the path of the blades and the shocking extent of the damage. The program also explores a less well-known cause of blood loss-fractured bones-which von Hagens illustrates in an experiment in which a femur dissected from a fresh cadaver is made to bleed as it would in life. Viewer discretion is advised. Contains clinically explicit language and demonstrations. (48 minutes).