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Larry Johnson Found in Contempt of Court; Warrant Issued for His Arrest

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On May 28, 2010, the Superior Court of the State of Arizona found former Alcor paramedic Larry Johnson in contempt of court and issued a warrant for his arrest. The associated judgment also ordered Johnson to pay Alcor $34,107.57 in addition to amounts owing from a July 2009 judgment against him and his wife. These new sanctions were the result of Johnson violating the July 2009 Arizona Judgment to stop disparaging Alcor, stop distribution of private patient records taken from Alcor, return all materials pertaining to Alcor, and otherwise stop communicating with third parties about Alcor. The July 2009 judgment arose out of various violations of a 2004 settlement agreement with Alcor in which Johnson agreed to make no further public statements about Alcor after being sued for distributing and misrepresenting confidential materials taken from Alcor in 2003. His defamatory and fictionalized book Frozen was a violation of the prior settlement agreement and a violation of the July 2009 judgment entered against Mr. Johnson and his wife. After failing to appear in the Superior Court of Arizona to answer for his transgressions, the Superior Court issued a judgment for contempt, an award of sanctions in favor of Alcor and a bench warrant for the arrest of Mr. Johnson in whatever state he can be found.

Alcor retained counsel in Las Vegas, Nevada to enforce the Arizona judgment against Mr. Johnson, and a hearing is currently scheduled for June 22, 2010 to ask that the Nevada court remand Mr. Johnson into custody and have him extradited to Arizona.

Continue reading “Response to Larry Johnson Media Allegations“

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Alcor’s 95th Patient

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A long time member since 1990 and a volunteer at Alcor, Paul Garfield (A-1608L), entered into hospice care this past May in Plano, TX. Alcor’s deployment committee decided to send Aaron Drake, Alcor’s Transport Coordinator; members of the Texas Regional Response Team; and a team from Suspended Animation to perform a standby. A little more than 30 hours after arriving, Paul was pronounced and the team immediately began performing stabilization and cool down procedures. Suspended Animation performed a successful washout in the field prior to Paul’s transport to Scottsdale, AZ. He became our 95th patient.

Born in 1917 in Boston, MA, Paul enjoyed a life of long distance running and dancing. He was an Army veteran, having served in China during WWII. Paul retired from a career as a Purchasing Agent and became very interested in cryonics when Alcor was located in California. He followed Alcor’s move to Arizona and volunteered every Friday for more than 10 years. Paul’s wonderful personality and smile will be missed by all of his friends here at Alcor.

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Cryonics Oregon June Meeting with Aubrey de Grey and Ben Best

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June 6, 2010 will be the next Cryonics Oregon meeting. It will coincide with a downtown Portland aging conference. As a result we have been successful in persuading Cryonics Institute President Ben Best and Alcor member and biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey to attend our meeting. The theme of the evening will be “Strategies for Life extension and Rejuvenation: A Discussion with Aubrey de Grey and Ben Best.”

Dr. Aubrey de Grey will present a brief synopsis of his Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) for regeneration and rejuvenation. Ben Best will reply with his view of shortcomings of the SENS approach, and how these shortcomings can be addressed. Discussion will include such matters as biomarkers of aging, mechanisms of aging, use of dietary supplements and the relevance of cryonics.

Date: Sunday, June 6, 2010
Time: 7:30pm – 10:00pm
Location: Roots Organic Brewing
Address: 1520 SE 7TH, Portland, OR

This will be no ordinary Cryonics Oregon meeting! Promotional materials from Alcor, CI, and SENS will be there as well.

To cover the rent of the space a minimum donation of $5.00 per person will be collected.

Attendees under 21 are allowed until 10:00 pm.

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Alcor Patient A-1712 David Hayes

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This past February, one of the original founders of Suspended Animation, Inc., and long time member of Alcor, David Hayes, suffered a seizure at his home in Florida. As the seizure was witnessed, 911 were called and David was taken to the local Emergency Department. He was pronounced when efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Due to David’s youthful age of 46, his clinical death was referred to the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s office. Alcor initially tried to prevent the autopsy from occurring, however the medical examiner said he was obligated under the law to perform the autopsy unless the court said otherwise. Through legal counsel, Alcor was successful in negotiating with the courts to allow for a virtual autopsy to be performed in place of the typically more invasive procedure. After a CT scan was performed and the medical examiner was satisfied with the results, they agreed to release the body to Suspended Animation, who was working on Alcor’s behalf.

Since three and a half days had elapsed from the time David was pronounced until Alcor received custody of the body, it was decided that a dry ice shipment through commercial airlines was the best option. Suspended Animation made the arrangements, prepared the shipment and David arrived in Scottsdale the following day. David Hayes (A-1712L) became Alcor’s 92nd patient.

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Arizona Team’s Back-to-Back Responses

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This past month, Alcor was faced with three members who were admitted to hospice with end-stage conditions. On back-to-back days, two of our members were cryopreserved while the third member’s condition has temporarily improved.

Through careful planning, we were able to have two members admitted into the same Hospice of the Valley facility, literally across the hall from each other. This allowed Alcor’s Arizona team to carefully monitor both members’ conditions simultaneously, 24 hours a day. Having three team members and Alcor’s Rescue Vehicle on site, we were able to provide immediate stabilization and cool down procedures and exceptionally quick transfer from time of pronouncement to Alcor’s surgery suite in 40 minutes and 32 minutes, respectively.

These cases were very important as they tested numerous benchmarks of Alcor’s abilities:
• How quickly Alcor could recover and reset for another patient.
• The abilities of the redeveloped and retrained Arizona team.
• The functionality of the recently remodeled Rescue Vehicle.
• The application of new stabilization equipment and supplies.
• The effectiveness of promoting that Alcor members relocate to
Scottsdale when they enter into hospice.

The real benefit of all of our preparations, training and planning is to our members, who reportedly received excellent perfusions.

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Alcor’s 93rd Patient

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Chihiro Asaumi (Yumi, A-2361), a member of Alcor for about two years, had relocated with her husband to the Scottsdale area. Suffering from metastatic breast cancer, her condition had worsened, apparently after a change in her medication. With surgical intervention no longer an option, she was accepted by Hospice of the Valley on an outpatient basis in late March.

Until Yumi met the requirements for inpatient care, hospice nurses regularly visited her at home. During this time, we communicated almost daily with her husband and the hospice personnel. When it became apparent Yumi had transitioned to the “active dying process,” her husband transferred her to inpatient care at a facility, located about 10 minutes from Alcor central.

The evening before her transfer, we launched a standby, which ultimately lasted four days. She was pronounced on April 14th with the Alcor standby team at her bedside. The emergency stabilization process was begun immediately following pronouncement, and she arrived at Alcor 40 minutes later. She is now in long-term care as Alcor’s 93rd patient.

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Alcor’s 94th patient

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Wesley du Charme (Wes, A-1614), a member for nearly 14 years, was recently diagnosed with end-stage pancreatic cancer after battling brain cancer for an extended period of time. After determining that additional treatments would be futile and the time required for treatments would only reduce the likelihood he would be well enough for travel, Wes and his wife packed their bags and flew to Arizona. The flight was challenging for Wes, given his condition, but he said that getting close to Alcor was worth the effort.

Wes was admitted to Hospice of the Valley and after five days as an inpatient, Wes took a turn for the worse. Having just completed Yumi’s cryopreservation, Alcor was back on standby with little recuperation time. On April 15th, about 30 hours after Yumi was pronounced, Wes became Alcor’s 94th patient. Again, the Alcor standby team was on-site and began stabilization immediately upon pronouncement, arriving at Alcor with the patient only 32 minutes later.

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Denver Post article on Alcor cryopreservation case

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Article covering the cryopreservation of Alcor member Dr. Wesley Du Charme:

“Psychologist believed the future can still be his after death.”

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Colorado Springs Gazette article on Alcor following court case

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Following a Colorado Springs court case where the desire of an Alcor member to be cryopreserved was upheld, the local paper ran this story on Alcor:

Cryonics lab Alcor, holder of Springs woman’s remains, takes low-key approach

Update: Link now goes to the Wayback Machine.

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Appeal of Orville Richardson Case to be heard by Iowa Court of Appeals

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Orville Richardson was an Alcor member who after his death in Burlington, Iowa, February, 2009, was buried by his next of kin without Alcor’s knowledge. On April 6, 2010, the Iowa Court of Appeals will hear an appeal by Alcor as to why Alcor should be allowed to recover and cryopreserve whatever remains of the brain of Mr. Richardson. Alcor is pursuing this appeal at substantial expense and risk of public misunderstanding because it believes that it has an obligation to fulfill wishes of its members, and defend the primacy of the individual right to choose cryonics.

Orville Richardson joined Alcor in 2004, directing that his remains be cryopreserved for purposes of cryonics research and potential revival in the future. He paid $20,000 for an Alcor Life Membership instead of paying annual membership dues. He also prepaid an additional $50,000 for his neuropreservation (preservation of the brain within the head) cryonics arrangement. This amount was held by Alcor in a segregated account until time of need, with earned interest regularly paid back to Mr. Richardson. Contrary to some media reports, Alcor is not aware of Mr. Richardson leaving any money to Alcor in a will.

Mr. Richardson died on Febrary 19, 2009, at the age of 81. He suffered from dementia the year before his death. He was survived by his brother and sister, his wife having died 22 years earlier. They had no children. On April 21, 2009, his brother wrote Alcor asking that the $50,000 prepaid by Orville Richardson for his cryonics arrangements be refunded to his estate because he “obviously did not utilize this service.” Alcor didn’t know that Mr. Richardson was seriously ill, and only learned of his death upon receipt of this letter. Alcor learned that Mr. Richardson had been embalmed and buried.

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