Researchers Designing Facility to Treat Medical Emergencies Aboard Space Station

Emergency treatment for a heart attack victim aboard the planned space station would save a rough ride of 12 to 16 hours and million of tax dollars.

To that end, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has asked a research team from Michigan to design a health maintenance facility for the orbital base scheduled to begin operation in 1995.

“If you save one emergency trip back to Earth, it would pay for the health maintenance facility,” said Charles W. Lloyd, 33, a professor in the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy.

“But nobody has a real firm grip on what we’ll have to deal with up there,” said Lloyd, who is collaborating with William Martin of Harper-Grace Hospitals in designing a pharmacy for the space station.

Headache to Broken Ribs

A crew member, trained as a paramedic and guided by radioed instructions from a doctor on Earth, would use the health facility to treat maladies ranging from headaches and cut fingers to pneumonia and broken ribs--conditions that could be aggravated or altered by zero gravity.

Swimmer’s ear, for example, would be a problem during extended space visits because there would be no gravity to draw water out of astronauts’ ears after they bathe.

“We have learned a lot about health problems that can occur in such an environment from other space ventures and from the Soviets, who already have a space station in orbit,” Lloyd said.

A heart attack victim might do better if kept temporarily aboard the station instead of undergoing the rough ride back to Earth, Lloyd said. A burn victim, however, may need immediate attention on the ground.

But designing a pharmacy to meet those needs is no easy task. NASA has specified that it should be four to five cubic feet and weigh less than 100 pounds. And everything would have to work without gravity. Intravenous tubes, for example, would have to be driven by pump.

Lack of Gravity

Lloyd said weightlessness is the biggest obstacle because commercially available products were designed for use under Earth’s gravity.

Lloyd, who began his work on the space pharmacy in 1985, has drafted a list of 130 drugs for the facility, ranging from aspirin to narcotics. He also is drawing up a series of medical scenarios the astronauts might encounter.

Lloyd hopes to build two prototypes of the pharmacy, one at the university and the other at the Johnson Space Center, by December. But he may have to be flexible.

“It looks now like the station won’t be able to accept a health maintenance facility until 1995,” he said. “We expect 25% of the drugs we’ve selected will be changed out by that time.”

So far, his design has been hovering around 160 to 180 pounds and seven cubic feet. Lloyd plans to reduce those dimensions to within NASA’s limits.