X-Message-Number: 1009
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 1992 21:35:38 -0400
From: Ken Stone <>
Subject: near-term suspension

I'm new to the list, so I don't know if anyone has asked/answered
this one yet:

Personally, I'm rather fearful that anyone frozen with today's
technology will ever be successfully revived.  I suspect the damage
caused by ice crystal formation is just too severe an insult
for the body to withstand.  Still, given no other alternative...
it's what we're left with.  So how about an alternate approach:

Would anyone happen to have any idea what the longest known time is
that someone has suffered a cold-water drowning (or other 'near-frozen'
suspension) and then later been successfully revived without damage
to the nervous system?  Has there been any research done to look for
substances (e.g. Hydergine) which might lengthen this time?

Alternately: how 'frozen' does someone have to be to be effectively
suspended?  Could someone last for a week or two at 0.01 degrees C?
Months at 0.001?  (actually a little lower, given that our bodily fluids
contain electrolytes which lower the actual freezing point, but you
get the idea....)

If so, I see some serious hope for *some* of the terminal patients who 
expect a cure to be developed in the relatively near future: keep
repeating the cycle of chilling and reviving the patient.

Such technology might even be an economic boon for those who are 
already paying to be kept alive by heart/lung machines. 

---Ken

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