Response planning
A 98 year old member in the St Louis area has had several medical issues over the past year, requiring frequent hospitalization to care for his illnesses. Any serious medical event can be life-threatening for someone of that age, making it difficult to plan when a standby might be warranted. To help guard against the consequences of an unexpected clinical death, Aaron traveled to St Louis to check on our member’s health and establish a relationship with local medical providers and a mortuary, to assist while a response team is en route.
A mini-med kit has been prepositioned with assurance from the nursing staff – and the blessing of the medical director – that the medications would be administered and circulated immediately following pronouncement. The patient would also be surrounded by ice bags and the local mortuary would be dispatched to relocate the patient to their cooler, which is maintained just a few degrees above freezing. Once a response team arrives, the mortuary’s prep room would be available for use, if a washout was desired, and/or the patient can be prepped for shipping.
Although many of the nurses and administrators are new, this is the same nursing facility where this member’s spouse resided, when a standby and stabilization was performed on her a little over two years prior. Reports of professionalism on our previous standby allowed for a warm welcome again with the new administration.
Training
A recent training session was held when a cadaver was made available to Alcor to practice our procedures. Among the list of objectives is surgical access and cannulation of the femoral and carotid vessels, practicing field neuro washout techniques, and median sternotomy, cannulation and whole body washout. All of these are planned to be performed in a portable ice bath to more accurately simulate field based procedures.
Watch List
There have been a string of elderly members who have had serious health issues recently. The Deployment Committee has been able to obtain high level medical information to accurately monitor the health status of these individuals. Currently, Alcor has a total of nine members on its watch list with various health issues that require occasional communication.
