I think the first time I recall some interesting work in suspended animation was in ~2006. It's impressive to see how far the techniques have come since then.
Hypothermia has been used increase the time surgeons have for more than half a century
> In 1950, after four years of research, our Toronto team reported to medical science the first successful open heart operation on record. Using hypothermia and animals, the body temperature was lowered, the blood entering the heart was stopped and the heart was opened for 20 minutes. Following this report to a senior American society, hypothermia became a sensation and dominated the surgical scientific literature for 10 years.
> In 1954, after further research, the first open heart operation on a human patient in Canada was carried out by our team at the Toronto General Hospital, using hypothermia. Hypothermia became the most common form of open heart surgery between 1954 and 1960 in the few cardiac surgery centres that existed around the world.
This sort of thing is by now routine, and also is used for some brain surgeries.
It's been difficult for me to understand whats new enough about this that it has been making the rounds in the news. Some of the new stories a few months ago seem sparked by a recent clinical trial, which (I think) was sorta novel in that it used these techniques in emergent situations.
In August 2009, I suffered an aortic dissection. This was repaired via Dacron stint during open heart surgery. I was "dead" (no perfusion) for 43 minutes.
Also, there's this trial going on to cool the body to increase the time surgeons have: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140402-suspe...
I think the first time I recall some interesting work in suspended animation was in ~2006. It's impressive to see how far the techniques have come since then.