No miracle cure (Image: ERproductions Ltd/Getty)
How did a collection of case reports lead to an untested drug being administered all over the world to people with serious bleeding, asks Ian Roberts
IN 1999, a leading medical journal published a remarkable story of survival against the odds. A 19-year-old Israeli soldier was admitted to hospital with a gunshot wound to his chest. The bullet had ripped through a major blood vessel causing torrential internal bleeding. Surgical intervention had failed and he was close to death. But then, “in a desperate attempt to control the bleeding”, he was given two intravenous…
