X-Message-Number: 17712 Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2001 19:24:32 -0400 From: William Gale <> Subject: Re: Congratulations to Platt on Discover Article References: <> Rudi Hoffman wrote: > Congratulations to Charles Platt on an excellent article in a major > publication, Discover magazine. I subscribe, and have my copy in front of > me. Discover *and* Scientific American, both publishing articles that at > least give some credence to the concepts related to cryonics, within weeks of > each other. I call this progress. > I got a quick brush off when I pointed out one of the assertions in this article before. Let me quote the paragraph in full and see if I can get a longer response. QUOTE The key discovery was made by Peter Safar, a doctor best known for introducing the techniques of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the United States almost 50 years ago. Now in his seventies, Safar is still the best-known figure in resuscitation medicine and continues to do research at his lab at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The fundamental challenge of resuscitation, he says, lies not in the heart but in the brain: "When sudden cardiac death occurs at normal body temperature, brain damage will be permanent after five minutes." UNQUOTE Here is a doctor said to be seventy years old, and therefore possibly "decades out of date", but also said to be the best-known figure in resuscitation medicine and still active in research. He is quoted as saying that at normal body temperatures, permament brain damage wil begin after five minutes. If this is not the case, what evidence is given to support a figure? Note that five minutes is hardly time to get a legal determination of "death". Clearly, whatever the time may be, it is not long, and we want as rapid as possible a cool-down. How is that to be achieved? Gale Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=17712