Jennifer Matthews: Jamie Robertson is a walking miracle. Nine months ago, he nearly died.
Jamie Robertson: I tripped and fell and hit the back of my head on the sidewalk. My brain was bruised and had blood clots in it, so they had to do surgery immediately.
Jennifer Matthews: Jamie is one of more than a million Americans who suffer a serious brain injury every year. Thirty-percent of those patients die.
Dr. Bruce Spiess: There is no magic pill or treatment for traumatic brain injury in terms of salvaging brain tissue. If you can get oxygen to that tissue, you can salvage a lot of tissue.
Jennifer Matthews: Dr. Spiess' man-made blood substitute called Oxycyte does just that. It's made from perfluorocarbons (PFCs), a compound similar to non-stick Teflon in frying pans.
Dr. Spiess: When you take a carbon atom and add fluoride to it, it can carry a huge amount of oxygen.
Jennifer Matthews: In a brain injury, swelling makes it tough for red blood cells to carry vital oxygen. Oxycyte's particles are much smaller.
Dr. Spiess: They are about 1/50th to 1/100 the size of a red blood cell.
Jennifer Matthews: Given intravenously, Oxycyte carries oxygen 50-times more effectively than blood.
Dr. Spiess: Within about a half hour to 40 minutes after the patients received the Oxycyte, their brain oxygen levels doubled to quadrupled.
Jennifer Matthews: Severe brain injuries kill one in three people. In a study on nine people who got Oxycyte, only two died. No survivors had permanent damage.
Dr. Spiess: They all walked out of the hospital, and today, they appear to be neurologically intact.
Jennifer Matthews: Jamie got Oxycyte and was playing golf just two months later.
Jamie Robertson: All the doctors said it was amazing how fast I recovered. I look at life a little bit different because I know how lucky I am.
Jennifer Matthews: Across the country in San Diego, another break-through is under study, the Hemopurifier. It cleans infected blood.
Dr. James Joyce: In essence, the cartridge is mimicking your natural immune response of clearing viruses and toxins from circulation before cells and organs can be infected.
Jennifer Matthews: The device works like a dialysis machine. Antibodies on spaghetti-like fibers capture and remove viruses as blood filters through it. It can clear blood of potential bio-weapons like smallpox, as well as measles, mumps and the flu.
Dr. James Joyce: It's the first observation of a medical device that has the ability to reduce viral load in a chronic infectious disease.
Jennifer Matthews: That could prove life-saving for patients with HIV or hepatitis C (HCV). It won't cure these infections, but routine use could keep the virus at low levels, making current drugs more effective.
Dr. James Joyce:: This mimics what your natural immune system is trying to accomplish.
Jennifer Matthews: Whether it's a blood cleaner or a blood substitute, these breakthroughs have us looking forward to the next big thing in medicine. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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