P026

Passage 26   Operations on the Brain

It is difficult for doctors to help a person with a damaged brain. Without enough blood, the brain lives for only three to five minutes.

Dr.  White thinks doctors should try to make the brain very cold. If it is very cold, the brain can live without blood for 30 minutes. This gives the doctors a longer time to do something for the brain.

Dr. White tried his idea on 13 monkeys. First he taught them to do different jobs. Then he operated on them. He made the monkeys' blood go through a machine which cooled the blood, and then sent the blood back to the monkeys' brains. When the brain temperature was 50 degrees, Dr. White stopped the blood to the brain. After 30 minutes he turned the blood back on. He warmed the blood again. After their operations the monkeys were like they were before. They were healthy and busy. Each one could still do the jobs the doctor had taught them.