Lance Becker

Lance B. Becker
Occupation Physician
Academic background
Alma mater University of Illinois College of Medicine
Academic work
Discipline Emergency medicine
Institutions North Shore University Hospital, Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine

Lance B. Becker is an American physician and academic, specializing in emergency medicine and treatment for cardiac arrest, currently at Northwell Health. He is the chairman of the department of emergency medicine at North Shore University Hospital, as well as chair and professor of emergency medicine at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine.[1]

Career

Becker received his M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center. Prior to joining Northwell, he founded and directed of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Emergency Resuscitation Center at the University of Chicago.

Research

Becker's research has focused on extending the time between cardiac arrest, or clinical death, and the time when a person is brain dead and can no longer be revived by emergency care. Historically, there was a "standard four-minute time limit", but this can now be extended to fifteen or even thirty minutes through better medical practices. Becker has worked to convince other doctors that "death doesn’t mean what they learned in their med school textbooks: 10 minutes without oxygen equals gone".[2]

Becker discovered that re-introduction of oxygen, rather than loss of oxygen, was primarily responsible for cell death.[3] Cell death can be delayed or stopped through the application of therapeutic hypothermia. In the case of Swedish skier Anna Bågenholm, who fell through ice into freezing water, the cold protected her from brain damage despite being without oxygen for over an hour.[2]

As of 2014, further research is planned where a patient's blood is replaced with a cold saline solution, and a state of "profound hypothermia" is then medically induced, at temperatures as low as 50 F (10 C). According to Becker, "draining the blood out and rapidly cooling a person to a deep level—we try to do it every day, and it’s just doggone hard to do... But I would say it’s very likely that the idea is correct."[4] Becker believes that long-term suspended animation, where a person is kept cold for years, will eventually be possible, although "we’re quite a distance" from that with current technology.[5]

Awards

Becker is a member of the US National Academy of Science, as well as the National Academy of Medicine.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Davenport, Tony (October 23, 2015). "Lance Becker, MD, Named Chair of Department of Emergency Medicine at North Shore University Hospital and LIJ Medical Center". Northwell Health. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 Glembocki, Vicki (November 24, 2009). "Lance Becker: Back From the Dead". Philadelphia. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  3. ↑ "The New Science of Saving Lives". Penn Medicine. April 2, 2007. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  4. ↑ Bushak, Lecia (December 20, 2014). "Induced Hypothermia: How Freezing People After Heart Attacks Could Save Lives". Newsweek. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  5. ↑ Szokan, Nancy (August 4, 2014). "Research raises question: Would you want to be frozen, awakened far in the future?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
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