April was a busy month for Alcor field work. Two Alcor members had
scheduled surgeries in Arizona during the last week of April. One of
the surgeries was deemed to be high risk. The surgeries were in
Tucson and Phoenix, one day apart. Alcor elected to perform
precautionary standbys for both of them, bringing in three team
members from Suspended Animation, Inc. (SA) from Florida for a joint
deployment exercise with Alcor personnel. This proved invaluable
because just prior to the surgeries, Alcor’s Standby Coordinator,
Regina Pancake, became ill, and Alcor’s Transport Coordinator, Aaron
Drake, was deployed to Canada for a last-minute non-member case in
Vancouver, British Columbia.
Four staff members from Critical Care Research, Inc. (CCR) also joined
the standbys on a voluntary basis to help out (thanks!) after driving the
SA transport vehicle from its California base to Arizona for the standbys.
Aaron Drake returned two days later, in time for the second higher risk
standby, after the family in Canada decided not to proceed with cryonics
arrangements.
Both surgeries were successful, and the members are recovering.
There was another deployment outside the USA in February of this year,
when Regina Pancake spent a week in England preparing a patient for
low temperature shipment to Alcor. A full report of this case will be
published soon.
