A Kyneton woman’s life has been saved by a revolutionary synthetic blood product at Melbourne’s Alfred hospital.Horse and riding educator Tamara Coakley, 33, lost a large amount of blood after surviving a horrific car accident late last year that killed her 7-year-old nephew. She was taken to The Alfred hospital and treated by the Director of Trauma Services Dr Mark Fitzgerald but couldn’t be given a blood transfusion, because of her Jehovah’s Witness faith.“She came in on a ventilator with tubes sticking out. She had low blood pressure,” Dr Fitzgerald said.Twenty-four hours passed with Ms Coakley in an induced coma, before he “knew she wasn’t going to make it,” Dr Fitzgerald said.In a last attempt to save her life, the surgeon decided to track down a hitherto experimental oxygen carrier called HBOC-20, that is derived from cow’s blood.“A few years ago I went across to the States because I wanted to do a study on this product,” Dr Fitzgerald said. “They were going to run a trial of it but they ran out of money and then we forgot about it. When (Tamara) was getting into trouble I realised this was the only option left. It took about 20 hours of non-stop work and phone calls...but the stars aligned and she did it,” he said.“It arrived just in time.”Ms Coakley is out of hospital now and “taking one day at a time.” She says she is grateful for the hospital’s actions when she was in the coma.“I was at the right place at the right time. It wasn’t a nice thing to go through ... I’m getting there, it’s a struggle. It’s a slow process. I’m just trying to stay positive and take each day at a time,” she said.