X-Message-Number: 28332
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 09:31:54 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: medical professionals
References: <>

Steve Bridge discusses the desirability of finding
collaborative medical professionals.

Here in Florida, at Suspended Animation, we have eight
paramedics/EMTs on-call; we have a fulltime employee who has
been a long-time professional perfusionist; we have a
cardiovascular surgeon on retainer; a paramedic/research
surgeon willing to do standby work; and another research
surgeon available for local work. In addition we can call
upon a woman with a master's degree in nursing, and, when we
range farther afield, various other people with medical
credentials.

When I was at Alcor, I contracted with a local group of ten
paramedics, whom Mathew Sullivan found simply by looking up
"paramedics" in the yellow pages.

I don't believe there is any major problem preventing any
cryonics organization (even a small one) from establishing
links with the medical profession. Some medical people are
skeptical, others are repulsed by cryonics procedures, but
there are always some who are intrigued. We found our
perfusionist by placing an ad. Our paramedics were brought in
to cryonics initially by another ad, placed by a longtime
cryonics advocate in Florida. Our surgeons responded to ads.

Bill Voice (a paramedic who worked for Alcor until recently)
once told me that if he was stranded in a remote area and
needed emergency help in a case, he would visit a local fire
house or ambulance company and simply ask. I had come to the
same conclusion, independently, having chatted with a couple
of paramedics who were on duty at a July 4 fireworks display.
Yes, they were interested in cryonics. They were skeptical,
of course, but I have been dealing with public skepticism in
this field for fifteen years now.

There are three issues: Career damage, liability, and money.
Paramedics are unlikely to fear career damage since they may
already hire themselves out in various roles, such as
providing emergency medical help at rock concerts. They will,
however, want to know what happens if they are injured on the
job, and they will want to be paid. Other medical
professionals may be more concerned about the way "cryonics"
looks on their resumes; and they too will want to be
protected from liability and paid.

In addition, from the cryonicists' point of view, there is
the "urgency issue." Cryonicists are always concerned that
paramedics won't work or try hard enough during a case,
because the patient is "already dead."  I believe this
concern is misplaced. Having studied cases run with and
without paramedics, and having seen paramedics participating
in practice sessions, I believe their professional pride
motivates them to work as hard as cryonics volunteer team
members, and more productively. However there will be times
when they simply don't know which procedure has priority (for
instance, do you push meds first or start cooling first, if
you have to make a choice). For this reason a case should be
_led_ by someone who has a thorough understanding of cryonics
and is strongly motivated.

At Suspended Animation we are fortunate in that we can afford
to pay our expert case workers and advisors. Currently we
have contractual agreements with the American Cryonics
Society and the Cryonics Institute. We are the sole provider
of standby procedures for those organizations. In addition we
have a verbal agreement with Alcor and we are hoping
eventually to affirm it with a written agreement.

--Charles Platt
Suspended Animation

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