X-Message-Number: 24805 Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 03:05:58 -0700 From: James Swayze <> Subject: Mourning Chris Reeve References: <> Christopher Reeve through misfortune found himself being a necessary ally in the fight over Stem Cell Research, freedom and funding. I greatly regret that my feeble attempts to get Chris to look into life extension and cryonics fell on deaf ears if indeed my appeals ever even reached him. I had no direct access to him despite sharing a less debilitative form of his affliction. I wish I had tried harder. I just never got any indication anything from me was actually being brought to his attention. It is too bad that he, as far as I know, was not signed up for cryonic suspension. He would have made a good high profile ambassador for cryonics. However, he might have felt, and possibly rightly so, that it would have detracted from his impassioned goal for SCR. Many potential and current backers for his SCR goal oriented Foundation might have jumped ship if they had discovered after his death he was involved in what they most likely, as we often have witnessed, may have seen as frivolous and controversial. It would be wrong but some might have felt that the money spent on his suspension would better be spent on his foundation's goals. This would be wrong headed but unfortunately often the case for public opinion surrounding controversial issues and here they would likely be seen as competing whereas truly we know they are allied. This is an alliance probably not readily seen as apparent by the cryonics uninformed public. On a personal level I was shocked to hear that Chris had died of something that I have survived on many occasions. In fact it was a bit sobering too consider how close I may have come. As reported bed sores contributed to Chris' ailment resulting in an infection of his blood that damaged his heart. I have had dicubitus sores (bed sores or pressure sores), in excess of dozens of times and had blood born infections at least three times and heart failure one time though not connected to any infection caused heart damage despite having double pneumonia at the time. For me it brings up so many questions but one I wish to dispel from anyone's mind for sake of Chris' wife and family and caregivers is, "How could he get bed sores when cared for so closely, couldn't they have been prevented?". I am cared for very closely and yet I still have gotten them on many occasions as also many of my ilk. The reason is the nature of the cause. The cause is pressure mainly but with several abiding and dangerous factors. A pressure sore occurs stealthily. There can be signs like redness of the skin where there is potential for one but not always some redness as it depends on if the area is fed by a lot of fine blood vessels, some areas are more than others. Some areas blanch and flush showing a good indicator for the presence of pressure or not. Some areas do not show such a blanching -- in presence of pressure, and flushing -- when pressure is reduced and blood rushes back to the starved area. So what happens is an area that doesn't show readily seen signs and therefore does call for being relieved of pressure can slowly die from circulation starvation from the inside out. You never see a dicubitus sore until the damage is already done and the surface erupts into a mushy mass of necrotic flesh. Pain can be an indicator but one can easily imagine that in a case of reduced nerve sensitivity and sometimes complete absence of entirely it can be difficult to decipher what little pain information one may get. Moreover everyone is different in this respect. Some have zero reaction to any pain stimulus sent from the afflicted area due to absolute lack of nerve enervation while others have mixed signals due to partial enervation. Also if there are indications at all it is often impossible to tell exactly from where the input is coming. I have also on occasion described the hormonal response and this too can mask signal specificity and cause focus on reliving the response due to its heart and brain damaging potential often by drug use. Too much drug use to stem this reaction and sometimes minor irritations become great big sores. Sorry for this graphic detailed account but I became concerned that such a question could damage Chris' family's reputation and with that the Chris Reeve Paralysis Foundation. My shock over his sudden death has left me perplexed. I don't know whether to count myself lucky for endowment with a heartier constitution or simply more determined to survive or just dumb luck to have survived this awful way of life for over 26 years. My family tends to side with the first assessment having witnessed me endure so many near fatal threats to my life that they have voiced over and over, "would have killed most people". Whatever it is I hope it continues a long long time. I don't mean to toot my own horn but just reassure my friends that they needn't worry that Chris' fate soon awaits me also. I hope that something good does come from his untimely end in more focus on the need for Stem Cell and other research efforts for mine and his shared ailments but not just that for every ailment that can be eliminated from the human condition by brave science and the shunning of superstition led acquiescence to human frailty. To wit, here is an absolutely monstrous article to which I intend vehement protest to its author. I find it the height of callousness and bad taste to chide one such as Chris and dare to make the suggestion that he sought after superhuman accomplishment beyond a rightful cure. This luddite bastard would have me and all that share my affliction forever bound in bondage to our paralysis. He would also have all of humanity stay bound to a short pitiful life full of toil, pain, injury, disease and eventual death, for the dignity of its finitude and noble striving against advsersity. Phooey! I find continued existence such as that with no progress to be quite pointless. His ilk would have us return to pasture and husbandry forever passing the same drudgery onto our progeny and they theirs, life then death then life then death ad infinitum. That is a pointless existence unless there would really be an afterlife. I don't believe there is so I won't be signing up for our return to pre tech days. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8122-1305837,00.html Opinion: We should fear the disturbing future where man becomes superman by MICHAEL GOVE also Embryonic stem-cell research turns human life into a means rather than an end SUPERMAN may have been a creation of the 1930s but his is a myth for our times. And the power of the fictional hero s story has only been underlined by the heroic life and tragic death of his Hollywood incarnation, Christopher Reeve. The potency of the Superman myth lies in the perennial human yearning to escape the constraints of the human condition. To be human is to inhabit a world of vulnerability and limits.[cont.] I hope you all will set him straight. James -- Membership in order of joining - all comments on any subject are solely my opinion only and not reflective of the official positions of the following: Cryonics Institute of Michigan http://www.cryonics.org The Immortalist Society http://www.cryonics.org/info.html The Society for Venturism http://www.venturist.org Immortality Institute http://www.imminst.org Methuselah Foundation http://www.methuselahfoundation.org Methuselah Mouse Prize http://www.methuselahmouse.org [Give $$$ for life!] World Transhumanist Assoc. http://www.transhumanism.org/ WTA Portland Chapter http://home.comcast.net/~swayzej/pdxwta.html MY WEBSITE: http://home.comcast.net/~swayzej/jspage_main.html Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=24805