Whether it’s brought on by a bullet wound, a vehicle accident or some other form of trauma, severe blood loss can kill in just a few minutes. Even when medical professionals arrive on the scene quickly, keeping the victim alive long enough to reach a hospital in extreme cases is often difficult, if not impossible.

A small company called Suneris has developed VetiGel, a plant-based polymer that the founders say can stop bleeding of both skin and organ injuries in 20 seconds or less. While they’re still working on ways to simplify the application process, the gel essentially just needs to be spread on the wound, with no need for pressure. Co-founder and CEO, Joe Landolina, says his team's eventual goal is to make the product as easy to use as an EpiPen.

Of course, there are competing products aiming to quickly stop blood loss, including QuickClot, which works by absorbing water, thus concentrating coagulants, and Xstat, which is made up of pill-sized sponges. But Landolina says most of these products either take minutes to stop blood flow or require pressure to be applied while the clot forms.

VetiGel is different in that it’s formed from plant cell wall polymers that, according to the company, form a mesh when exposed to blood or tissue. The mesh quickly collects fibrin, a protein that’s key to the clotting of blood. And because it’s plant-based, the mesh can be left in the wound to be absorbed by the body as it heals.....VetiGel isn’t yet approved for human use. But Landolina says that his company is researching and developing the gel at its manufacturing facility in Brooklyn, while releasing it for use in a few veterinary clinics to get feedback and further tweak the product.....




Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/plant-based-gel-stops-bleeding-seconds-180953488/#M0EpowoZ4hojhZqr.99