Researchers from Queen Mary, University of London will present their pioneering blood-clotting research at Birmingham’s Big Bang Fair this week.
The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair is the UK’s leading celebration of science and engineering for young people. Between Thursday 15 and Saturday 17 March, in excess of 35,000 visitors are expected to attend the event, with children under-14 making up the majority of visitors.
The Trauma Sciences research group’s exhibit, ‘Trauma Surgery: The Science of the bleeding obvious!’ presents their world-first study into how blood-clotting failures affect trauma victims’ survival rates.
Based at the Blizard Institute and The Royal London Hospital, Queen Mary’s Trauma Sciences research group were the first to identify a failure in the blood clotting mechanism in one in four trauma victims. This failure leads to greater blood loss, organ failure and a four-fold increase in death after an injury.
Sponsored by a People’s Award from the Wellcome Trust, the exhibit will explain this blood-clotting failure with the help of interactive models and videos, and demonstrate how lives can be saved with specialist surgical skills and resuscitation practices.
Professor Karim Brohi of Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary, will lead members of the research group in explaining to Big Bang’s visitors how scientists are working to understand why this condition develops in injured patients and how it can be treated.
Professor Brohi leads the Trauma Sciences Research Group. He said: “Traumatic injury is the number one cause of death worldwide among children and young adults- 18,000 people in the UK alone die each year from such injury, with over half of these deaths as a result of uncontrolled bleeding.
“This exhibit will demonstrate how our leading research unit is working to understand haemorrhage in trauma and improve results for patients. The unique and interactive models on display at the Big Bang Fair will allow audiences to step into the world of trauma surgery and see for themselves the techniques and practices that are used to save lives.”
The Royal London Hospital is an internationally renowned trauma centre that cares for over 2,000 injury patients each year. The development of surgical techniques and blood transfusion procedures has led to a considerable reduction in death-rates in trauma patients at the hospital and internationally, including in conflict zones.
The Big Bang: UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fair will be held at the Birmingham NEC from 15 March – 17 March.
Entry is free but must tickets must be booked online: http://www.thebigbangfair.co.uk/book_now.cfm
The fair is open on Thursday and Friday (15th and 16th) March for school groups, with families welcome on Saturday 17th. It is open from 9am until 6pm on all three days.
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