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New Product Closes Up Bullet Wounds in 15 Seconds

By Cheri Cheng | Update Date: Feb 05, 2014 02:39 PM EST

Advances in technology and science have continuously saved more and more lives. One of the latest inventions, called the XStat, can reportedly seal up a bullet wound in just 15 seconds. The product has the potential to become a huge lifesaver for U.S. soldiers on the battlefield.

The product is made up of a spongy material that must be injected into the injured person via a modified syringe. The spongy material then expands and fills up the bullet wound. At the same time, the material exerts pressure to stop the wound from bleeding. Before this product was invented, soldiers had to use layers of gauze on top of a wound to stop the bleeding. If the bleeding continued after three minutes, the soldiers are supposed to remove all the gauze layers and restart the entire process, which has been described as painful.

"Gauze bandages just don't work for anything serious," commented a former U.S. Army Special Operations medic, John Steinbaugh according to the Washington Times.

Steinbaugh left the military in 2012 and became a part of the company, RevMedx, which created the XStat. RevMedx is a start-up company in Oregon that employs veterans, researchers and engineers with the goal of creating better ways of addressing wounds on the battlefield. Before creating XStat, the company looked at Fix-a-Flat foam, which is a tire-repair kit. The foam, however, could not stop the bleeding. From this product, they were inspired to create something that would soak up the blood and stop the bleeding.

After experimenting with sponges on animal models, they found that the sponges worked a lot better than the foam material. RevMedx was able to continue with the development of this prototype with the help of the Army's $5 million donation. The sponges are made with a hemostatic agent to stop bleeding. XStat currently costs around $100 per use, but the prices are expected to drop. The product is only being used for investigative purposes. It will need to seek approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before it can be used widely.

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