TOURNIQUET

In the fourth century BCE, Alexander the Great’s army was among the first to use the tourniquet, saving innumerable soldiers from fatal bleeding. Twenty-five centuries later, uncontrolled blood loss remains the most common cause of death from traumatic injury. Tourniquets were originally fashioned from bronze and lined with leather, while the modern versions are usually made of nylon or rubber. Their function, however, has not changed.

DEFIBRILLATOR

Ventricular fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm, was largely untreatable until 1947, when Ohio cardiac surgeon Claude Beck made history. During surgery on a 14-year-old boy, Beck applied an electric shock directly to the adolescent’s heart, restoring its rhythm and saving his life. It was the first use of the experimental device, invented by electrical engineer William Kouwenhoven, on a human heart — and it paved the way for modern cardiac resuscitation. Today, if defibrillators are applied quickly, 70% of people experiencing cardiac arrest can survive.

HEIMLICH MANEUVER

Thanks to American thoracic surgeon Henry Heimlich, the fourth most common cause of death in the United States — choking — is preventable. The first documented use of the Heimlich maneuver was by a retired restaurant owner in 1974. After reading a newspaper article about Heimlich’s novel method for forcing trapped food out of the windpipe, Isaac Piha came to the rescue of a neighbor choking on a piece of chicken. To date, it’s estimated the maneuver has prevented the choking deaths of more than 100,000 people.

NARCAN

Opioid overdoses meant almost certain death until Narcan — an antidote for opioid poisoning — changed the landscape. Developed in 1961 by pharmaceutical researchers Jack Fishman and Mozes Lewenstein, this medication remained a little-used hospital treatment for decades. That changed in 1996 when a Chicago addiction treatment center began distributing Narcan to patients, turning it into a game-changer in overdose prevention. Today, it’s estimated Narcan has saved millions of lives.

But today’s powerful opioids are outpacing the antidote. Fentanyl, the deadliest drug in the United States, kills more than 100,000 people annually and can render Narcan ineffective. So, three USC Dornsife professors are working on a stronger version. Early laboratory trials have been promising. Clinical trials are the next step.

“A new, much stronger and longer-lasting opioid antidote could save people in severe fentanyl overdose cases where Narcan cannot,” says Vsevolod “Seva” Katritch, professor of quantitative and computational biology, chemistry and pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences, who is working with Vadim Cherezov and Valery Fokin, both professors of chemistry. “A stronger antidote would be a huge breakthrough,” says Katritch. —T.W.