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                     Alcor News Bulletin
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                Number 3: January 7th, 2003


Below is the text of a report to Alcor's board of directors
from Charles Platt, Director of Suspension Services. It
summarizes events relating to patient care during the past
two months. The report was presented in time for the board
meeting on January 5th, 2003. In the few days since the
report was delivered, we have begun searching actively for a
suitable vehicle to convert into an ambulance, and we have
signed a formal agreement with Paramedics Unlimited, which
will act as a "temp agency" to provide us with paramedics
who will participate in remote standbys.

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The Good News: 

Despite our need to respond to three cryonics cases in less 
than two months, Alcor has enhanced its readiness and is 
better able to respond to future emergencies. 

While every cryonics case involves unforeseen problems, no 
significant human errors degraded the treatment of our three 
cryopatients, and we saw no significant edema, which had been 
troublesome in two patients earlier this year. 

We provided standby service throughout the Alcor conference, 
mainly for a Scottsdale member who was in critical condition. 
We provided excellent standby service during the patient's 
terminal phase, and we were present at the time of legal 
death. Meds were injected despite the lack of IV access, and 
the patient was moved to Alcor with unprecedented speed, even 
though we suffered a major instance of equipment failure. 

In our most recent case, which occurred without warning in 
California, we received outstanding assistance from our 
California team members and affiliates and saw a high level 
of professionalism in the operating room. 

We now have an annual contract with a California laboratory 
which will provide continuing advice on postmortem 
medications, based on recent resuscitation research. Our 
range of meds can be simplified, enabling substantial 
reductions in cost and labor. The same laboratory also hosted 
a surgical training session and is willing to do more. 

New meds kits were assembled and will be distributed 
regionally after the meds have been updated in accordance 
with recommendations from our consultants. Also, new ATP 
(blood washout) kits have been created. 

On the advice of researchers in relevant fields, we have 
established a policy advocating median sternotomy as the 
procedure of choice in future neuro cases. The potential cost 
penalty has been minimized with help from our suppliers of 
ice blockers. 

In mid-December we reached a verbal agreement with a Phoenix-
based company that offers paramedic services and is willing 
to supply paramedics for up to three weeks of standby time. 
Also a highly competent engineer with extensive experience in 
low-temperature liquids has made himself available as a 
consultant at a reasonable hourly rate, and has agreed to 
participate in our upcoming ambulance replacement effort. 

We have looked for additional help from several other 
sources. We now have a comprehensive list of all the people 
who have taken transport courses, have worked in standbys, or 
have participated in the operating room. We have been 
contacting personnel on this list to verify their continuing 
availability. We have established new working relationships 
with skilled people, including three who have surgical-
research backgrounds, one scrub nurse/surgical technician 
with more than 20 years of experience, and a new standby team 
member who has EMT training. Lastly, a cryonics enthusiast 
with an honors degree in biology will be visiting Alcor for a 
week in January, 2003 to learn about our procedures, assist 
us in the lab, and decide what he may be willing to do in the 
future. 

In January, 2003 we expect to acquire a LUCAS resuscitation 
unit from Sweden. This is a totally new design which may 
outperform the previous best-known cardiopulmonary support 
system, the ACDC Thumper. The LUCAS unit costs less, is more 
compact, weighs less, and should enable a radically 
simplified ice bath. In the meantime we have built a rigid 
(noncollapsible) ice bath that can be used for local 
emergency transports, either in our ambulance or in the 
recently acquired Chevy Suburban. 

We placed an advertisement with the largest online job 
agency, seeking a future standby team leader with medical 
qualifications (ideally, paramedic or hospice nurse). We have 
received more than 20 resumes and have interviewed five 
people so far. 

On a personal note, I ventured into some areas outside of my 
primary job description during the last two months. I 
initiated the Alcor News email service, which now has 200 
subscribers and will provide instant news releases to Alcor 
members and potential members at negligible cost. I wrote, 
formatted, and printed "The Biology of Cryonics," a quick 
introduction targeted at hospital personnel and other medical 
professionals who may not realize that cryonics has a solid 
foundation in resuscitation medicine and cryobiology. The 
purpose of this booklet is to achieve better cooperation 
during standbys, and it has fulfilled this objective in two 
cases so far. 

I researched and wrote another booklet advising Alcor members 
about healthcare decisions and autopsy, and I obtained 
software that will create Durable Power of Attorney for 
Healthcare forms (and other legal documents) customized for 
each of the 50 states. To provide better protection for 
Alcor, I created a nondisclosure agreement which visitors and 
consultants will be asked to sign. Lastly I requested some 
quick decisions about the utilization of space in adjacent 
areas of the building, and consequently was appointed to a 
committee that will make recommendations on this issue. 

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The Not-So-Good News: 

We lost two standby team members: David Shipman (who has 
chosen not to make himself available for future cases, for 
personal reasons) and Joe Tennant (who is relocating outside 
of the United States). 

Despite two recent inspections and service at a local garage, 
our ambulance refused to start at a time when we needed it. 
This problem has been fixed, and our recently purchased Chevy 
Suburban can be used for backup if necessary, but replacing 
the amulance with a newer, customized vehicle is a very high 
priority which we will tackle within the next 10 days. As a 
result of the problem with the ambulance, our Scottsdale 
patient did not receive transport in an ice bath. Fortunately 
we were able to inject the most important meds prior to 
transport, and the transport took less than fifteen minutes, 
minimizing the effect of lack of cooling during this 
interval. 

The situation in Britain has been a cause for concern, as a 
former Alcor activist was angered by a statement that Alcor 
might use equipment in Britain owned by a non-Alcor member if 
our equipment happened to be unavailable. We have been unable 
to verify whether the former activist was responsible for a 
misleading and potentially damaging message which appeared on 
the Alcor UK web site. He has not responded to email on this 
topic. 

We had expected to own a new collapsible ice bath by now, but 
construction was delayed, initially by other commitments and 
subsequently by our decision to purchase the LUCAS unit, 
which will affect ice-bath design. 

We are disappointed that our LabView program still isn't 
ready to provide fully featured control of the cooldown 
process, but we now have a new LabView consultant who has 
agreed to finish this project at less than half the price 
quoted by the previous consultants. 

Alcor's contract surgeon has asked us to locate and buy a 
perforator that will expedite the process of creating burr 
holes, to monitor the brain during cryoprotective perfusion. 
We have not been able to find an affordable perforator yet, 
but we still hope to do so. 

Collection of temperature data during two of our cryonics 
cases was inadequate, but was very good in the third case, 
largely through the efforts of our California surgical 
consultants. 

A new transport manual has not been written, partly because 
procedures and medications have been subject to substantial 
revision. We now have a complete set of all the relevant 
earlier editions of transport manuals, and a new manual can 
be written around procedures and meds that have been largely 
finalized. 

A comprehensive training course for Alcor transport 
technicians and other personnel has been delayed, partly by 
other priorities, partly by the lack of a transport manual, 
and partly because we were waiting to find out whether we 
would reach an agreement with the agency that has now 
promised to supply us with paramedics for standby work. The 
training course will be scheduled for February, or as soon 
after February as possible. Lack of the training course has 
not had an impact on our ability to handle cases, but still, 
the course is essential. 

We have not completed a prototype for rapid cooldown of 
whole-body vitrification patients, have not established a 
method for maintaining such cases at a low temperature in the 
operating room, and have not begun to address the issue of 
intermediate-temperature storage. A scientist in California 
had told us that he would make storage recommendations before 
the Alcor conference, but he was delayed by other factors and 
subsequently warned us that his plans may be expensive to 
implement. Consequently we may pursue this objective 
independently or in collaboration with Suspended Animation, 
Inc. 

We remain unsure about the suitability of our vitrification 
solution for whole-body patients. The solution has never been 
applied to a whole-body human case. It caused side effects 
when applied to a dog whose cryopreservation had been 
requested by its owner earlier this year. A laboratory in 
California had proposed to verify the whole-body effects, but 
abandoned this plan after it made a policy decision to study 
brain vitrification. We have the option of seeking 
collaboration with Suspended Animation, Inc. to finance 
whole-body vitrification research elsewhere. 

Two employees have left Alcor's technical staff, but one is 
still actively available on a consultancy basis, and 
consequently we have not experienced a negative impact on our 
technical capabilities. 

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I'd like to thank the Alcor employees, consultants, and 
volunteers who have sustained our standby, transport, 
perfusion, and cooldown capability during the past two 
months. Full-time staff: Hugh Hixon, James Sikes, Mathew 
Sullivan, and Mike Perry. Surgical consultants: Jose 
Kanshepolsky, Jeff Kelling, Nancy McEachern, Steve Harris, 
Sandra Russell, Joan O'Farrell, and Steve Rude (who also 
provides mortuary service). Additional assistance in the 
operating room: Jerry Lemler, Paula Lemler, Judy Muhlestein, 
Mike Read, Jessica Sikes, and John Grigg. Members of our 
California standby team who helped us in cases inside and 
outside of California: Russell Cheney, Keith Dugue, Louise 
Gold, Todd Huffman, Bobby June, and Peter Voss. Houston 
standby assistance: Tom Brown, Mike Darwin, David Hayes, and 
Todd Soard. Additional assistance: Jennifer Chapman, Bruce 
Cohen, Paul Garfield, and Jerry Searcy. Financial and other 
sage advice: Michael Riskin. 

Special thanks to Tanya Jones, who has participated in two of 
our three recent cases and has played an indispensable role 
in standby work and in the operating room. Welcome back, 
Tanya. 



Alcor News is written primarily by Charles Platt.
Contents are copyright 2003 by Alcor 
Foundation but permission is granted to reprint any whole 
news item, so long as Alcor is credited as the source and 
the reprint includes our URL at http://www.alcornews.org.