X-Message-Number: 20399 Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 14:16:06 -0500 (EST) From: Charles Platt <> Subject: News Void I do indeed have plans to fill the "news void." While my primary duty for Alcor is to enhance its standby capability, and my secondary objective is to work on other aspects of patient care, I am of course acutely aware of the need to communicate with our members, potential members, observers, and members of other organizations. As a rather brief and inadequate step in this direction, I can announce that Alcor cryopreserved one of its members on Sunday night/Monday morning, November 3/4. Our active involvement in this case was initiated by a call from a relative who wanted us to begin a standby near the beginning of October. The standby team was deployed, but I scaled back the standby when it became apparent that it was liable to last for many weeks. There were financial factors, other practical factors, and burnout factors (we cannot afford to inflict _too_ many gruelling experiences on our standby people). While the hospital and the relative promised to inform us of any change in the patient's condition, this did not occur. Fortunately however I made periodic phone calls and learned of a potentially serious drop in blood pressure on Saturday Nov 2, and I asked our Southern California team leader, Russell Cheney, to go to the remote location where the patient had been in an ICU for many weeks. Russell arrived just after the patient arrested. Fortunately the patient's relative (who is a doctor) performed emergency procedures precisely as I had described them to him. Within 7 hours after arrest, the patient was at Alcor, via air ambulance. This was Alcor's first whole-body case in about three years. Surgery was performed well, and a glycerol perfusion reached a terminal concentration of around 7.1 (this figure is being supplied from memory; I do not have notes with me right now). Perfusion of the brain seemed good, with minimal edema. Fortuitously, Tanya Jones was visiting Alcor, and we benefited from her extensive past experience. The patient is now in the cooling phase. This was a very difficult case, primarily because of human factors, but the outcome was much better than I had expected. I will supply a more detailed account in the future. This summary has not been checked by other Alcor staff; it is a hasty preliminary response to the request for more Alcor information. --Charles Platt Director of Suspension Services, Alcor Foundation Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20399