Scientists, going on a bear hunt, find a potential way to treat deadly blood clots
Manuela Thienel and her 38 collaborators — it takes a village to study a bear — think they’ve cracked the mystery as to how bears hibernate without risk of blood…
Like many cardiologists, Manuela Thienel spends most days in the chlorinated, temperature-controlled halls of a large hospital. But one week in February 2019, her work brought her to a snowy Swedish forest, where she stood shuddering in a winter coat, looking on as veterinarians and rangers walked into a bear den to drug a hibernating bear and retrieve its blood.
Thienel believed hibernating bears may hold an answer to an ailment that kills up to 100,000 Americans every year. When humans are rendered immobile for weeks or months, laid low by infection or paralyzed by a traumatic injury, they are at high risk for a potentially fatal blood clot called venous thromboembolism.
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