Alcor member A-1546 was pronounced on Wednesday November 9, 2011. A neurocryopreservation case, he became Alcor’s 109th patient.

A-1546 had been on our watch list for a couple of years. He originally went into the hospital with a pulmonary embolism and it was discovered that he had gastric cancer. He said that a follow-up PET-CT exam showed that he was free of any problems. However, he went back into the hospital on November 3, 2011 with difficulty breathing, and was treated for pneumonia, hypotension, and tachycardia. Doctors discovered that his lungs were riddled with metastatic gastric cancer and that he had a hepatic lesion.

Alcor was alerted to the worsened situation by means of a medical alert message on November 5. The doctor estimated that A-1546 had perhaps two or three weeks remaining to live and wanted to transfer him to a hospice. The $5,000 available for moving to a Scottsdale-based hospice was mentioned; the member’s wife did not favor the idea but was otherwise cooperative. Alcor faxed written directions to the doctor for review and later spoke to the hospice director. A-1546 was being cared for by a hospice-at-home program from November 7.

At 12:55 PM on November 9, A-1546′s wife reported that he was having severe breathing difficulties. Although just a couple of days earlier, doctors had estimated that he had several more weeks, the Deployment Committee decided on November 8 that a standby was indicated. Since Aaron Drake could get there before Suspended Animation, he left Phoenix at 10:33 AM to fly to Washington (state) with a mini-med kit. A-1546 declined even faster than expected, so that Aaron arrived just an hour and a half before clinical death (which was around 5:30 PM PST). The SA deployment, which wouldn’t be possible until the next day, was canceled. Aaron dealt with the situation on his own, although SA handled arrangements with the mortuary.

A-1546 was delivered to Alcor at 10:44 AM on November 10, with a pharyngeal temperature of about 6C and no sign of clotting. The time from arrest to on the pump was 17 hours, 52 minutes. Good perfusate flow was observed, with even perfusion of both hemispheres and even skin coloration. Cryoprotection was completed at 4:31 PM MST.

The next Alcor Board of Directors meeting is currently scheduled for Saturday, December 3, 2011, at 11:00 AM (PDT) at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ). Members and the public are encouraged to attend this meeting.

Standby and Stabilizations
An Alcor member in the New York area was placed on a ventilator following a recent serious medical event. Catherine Baldwin of Suspended Animation (SA) traveled to the area to establish a relationship with the medical facility and mortuary in the event stabilization was needed. Although the member’s health has temporarily improved it was decided that a full standby was not warranted, she continues to struggle with her illness and may eventually need our services.

Alcor received emergency notification that a member in the St. Petersburg, Florida area had been rushed to the hospital and was diagnosed with a massive intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke due to a ruptured brain aneurysm. Suspended Animation was sent to the hospital and began to prepare for a probable suspension. Through medical imaging, physicians determined the individual’s brain damage was so extensive they declared him brain-dead. After the family withdrew life support, SA performed field stabilization and the patient was shipped as an anatomical donation on dry ice to Alcor.

Two international emergency calls were received this past month from non-Alcor members to inquire about last-minute cryopreservation – one from Beijing, China and the other from Bucharest, Romania. Communication problems, due to language barriers and time zone differences, impeded our ability to effectively evaluate the legitimacy of the Chinese enquiry and the individual in question passed away before any serious consideration could be made. Communication surrounding the Romanian individual is being spearheaded by the country’s National TV and the motives of the agency have not been revealed. We are awaiting additional information before taking any further action.

Alcor is pleased to announce that the 4th Quarter 2011 Cryonics Magazine is now available for viewing, purchasing and downloading. Just because we no longer mail out physical copies of Cryonics magazine (except by special arrangement), you shouldn’t miss out on what’s going on at Alcor and in cryonics.

The 2011 4th quarter issue of Cryonics magazine is dedicated to the “father of cryonics,” Robert Ettinger, who was cryopreserved on July 23, 2011. Alcor staff member Mike Perry contributes an historical piece on Ettinger.

Mark Plus and Charles Platt write about Ettinger’s influence on contemporary cryonics, futurism, and the cryobiology community. Cryonics editor Aschwin de Wolf compiled Robert Ettinger’s mature thoughts on the feasibility of ‘mind uploading’ and situates his outlook in a broader philosophical context.

This issue also features a detailed article by the Alcor Board of Directors and Management about member underfunding and its associated challenges for Alcor’s long-term financial health. “We urge all members to read this and tell us their thoughts on the proposals in the article.” Alcor member, and prolific science fiction writer, Gregory Benford is featured in this issue’s member profile.

Cryonics magazine is also available as a paper magazine. Individual issues cost $9.95 plus shipping.  They can be ordered at MagCloud.  A subscription to the paper edition of Cryonics magazine is also available. If you live in the United States, a subscription for one year costs $39, two years $69, three years $99 (including shipping). If you live in another country, a subscription for one year costs $99, two years $179, three years $239 (including shipping). Start your subscriptions to the paper edition TODAY!