X-Message-Number: 15434
From: 
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 11:36:08 EST
Subject: Grimes' questions

Jeff Grimes (#15426) had a couple of specific questions. Here are the answers:

1. (How long to get the patient to CI in recent cases?) Of our last three 
patients, two died at home under hospice care and were processed immediately. 
One was not found until more than a day after death. 

Incidentally, it is a tricky proposition to compare delay times of Alcor's 
recent patients and CI's recent patients. First, the sample is small and the 
circumstances of death happenstance. It is the overview that is important. 
Longer delays on average with Alcor are inherently certain, because Alcor's 
traveling team has to get there, and THAT in recent cases has taken 30 hours 
or more--whereas, if a CI patient has made emergency arrangements with a 
local funeral director, delay in arrival of help is usually less than an 
hour, sometimes just a few minutes, and the local help could include washout 
and perfusion.  

2. (Are instructions for funeral directors available?) Of course--they are 
available to all members and their funeral directors, and are not 
confidential. We haven't previously posted them on the web site--just one of 
many things we haven't yet gotten around to doing. The proverbial one-armed 
paper-hanger. But we will. 

And yes, of course, Albin's in London not only has the instructions, but has 
actually had experience using them on real patients, and has built special 
shipping containers and other equipment. Albin's also has vast experience and 
excellent administrative connections throughout Europe.

3. (CI traveling team?) As indicated, our traveling team option has limited 
usefulness and has not been emphasized. We can send two experienced people, 
including a funeral director, with solutions and equipment to do washout and 
perfusion locally, if the considerations of distance and time and expense 
work out. The most likely scenario is that someone within an hour or two 
travel time has died or is nearly certain to die very soon, and the family 
want to minimize delay and get the benefit of experienced people. 

Robert Ettinger
Cryonics Institute
Immortalist Society
http://www.cryonics.org

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