VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Doctors in Vancouver were stunned when
the man they were operating on turned out to have dark green blood.
No, the man was not following in the steps of "Star Trek's" fictional
Mr. Spock -- a Vulcan with green blood, BBC News reported. The
42-year-old patient's unusually colored blood was caused by a migraine
medication called sumatriptan, BBC News reported Friday. The
medication caused a rare condition where sulfur is incorporated into
the oxygen-carrying red blood cells, which turns the blood green, said
Dr. Alana Flexman of St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver. The man's blood
returned to normal after the amount of the medication was reduced. The
man had needed immediate surgery because he had developed a dangerous
condition in his legs after falling asleep in a sitting position. The
surgery was successful. Mr. Spock, of the starship Enterprise, had
green blood because the oxidizing agent in Vulcan blood is copper, not
iron, as it is in humans.


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