X-Message-Number: 16587 Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001 03:01:21 -0400 From: James Swayze <> Subject: "Miraculously"? Thomas please explain References: <> Thomas Donaldson wrote: > A bit of comment: the idea that cold will help preserve even human > life, and stories about people of different ages who seem to > "miraculously" survive with their heart stopped in a snowdrift > (or other source of cold) is very old and I would hope that > cryonicists would cease reporting such stories for just that > reason. > Thomas, I don't understand. Could you please elaborate. Your "" around "miraculously" could lead someone to feel you are skeptical of the truth of such stories. Or is it just that it's old info with nothing new to offer? If the former than I must tell you that I've seen on what we have in the US called Discovery Channel and The Learning Channel, both fairly reputable for reporting science accurately by scientists themselves, several programs with the survivors testimonies and that of their doctors. The baby in the snow bank is a widely reported very very recent case. Her core temp got to 60 degrees F and her extremities were in danger of frostbite were saved by careful and slow warming and perhaps other methods I don't recall just now. Now as to whether there is new info to report with such stories I believe there is and it is relevant, in my humble and obviously layman's opinion, to cryonics. A recent medical program featured on one of the above channels and I believe titled something like "Resurrection" featured stories about soldiers in the Falklands that survived traumatic injuries even amputation for many hours waiting for help. The difference the scientist figured between them and Vietnam soldier's rate's of survival was the near freezing weather of the Falklands. The show also featured the recent baby saved from severe hypothermic death and reviewed many others from cold water drownings. The show was positive towards the use of cryo fluids in trauma situations to actually induce hypothermia to extend the golden hour that trauma victims perilously teeter in between death and life. There were several reasons they sited why extreme cold was good for patients and they said it will revolutionize how much of our medicine is practiced. They simulated an ambulance ride where cryogenic fluids were injected into a patient to induce hypothermia. Now I can't help but think that this is good for cryonics as in a public relations sense. Without knowing the finer details I think the public will catch on to the idea of purposeful induced hypothermia as an emergency medicine practice and more readily accept the idea of very very cold temperatures being used to put death on hold. Of course I could be wrong. I did try to find the show or information about it on the two websites for those channels but had no luck then. It might have been too soon. I'll look again and provide a link if anyone is interested in the film itself or a transcript. James -- From the point of ignition To the final drive The point of the journey is not to arrive --RUSH Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=16587