X-Message-Number: 1261
Subject: CRYONICS American Cryonics News September 92 1/2
From:  (Edgar W. Swank)
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 92 07:21:02 PDT

AMERICAN CRYONICS NEWS  (Part 1 of 2)
[Reprinted from the September 92 Immortalist]
 
The Suspension of Lynne Marsh
by Jim Yount
 
For a number of years Lynne Marsh had been confined to a nursing home
in San Francisco (see "Lovely Lynne is Sleeping" by Dick Marsh, this
issue).  Although Lynne was obviously not in good health, there was
little warning of impending death.  Here is my account of her
suspension.
 
I received a call at about 10:45 a.m.  from Lynne's husband Dick who
said Lynne's doctor had just telephoned him with bad news.  Lynne had
suffered a seizure and was being taken to Kaiser Hospital for a
catscan.  Dick was to ride with his wife in the ambulance from the
nursing home (within a few blocks of Dick's home) to the hospital.  I
gave him the ACS 800 number and the Trans Time number and suggested he
call when he knew more.  (The advantage of 800 emergency numbers is
that telephone credit cards or change is notnecessary.)  I then called
Trans Time Board Secretary Judy Segall and told her of Lynne's medical
problem.
 
ACS Governor and Board Secretary Carmen Brewer came into the office
about 11:30; we discussed the events and Carmen agreed to call various
people to put them on alert.  Carmen and Maria Santana, the ACS Office
Manager, watched the phones while I went out on an important errand.
At about 1:00p.m.  I called the office from my home.  Carmen said Dick
had called to report that Lynne was in bad shape and could die
anytime.  Carmen had called Jerry White who was available to go to San
Francisco on stand)by.  I called John Day who also immediately agreed
to go on standby.  (Both John and Jerry have participated in virtually
all of the suspensions involving the American Cryonics Society since
our first suspensions in 1974.  They are good people to have in your
corner.)
 
I followed up on Carmen's call to Jerry by calling him myself; Jerry
said he would probably go directly to the hospital.  John Day was to
meet me at the Sunnyvale ACS office.
 
I talked with Dick by phone and got his authorization for a standby.
I told him I or others would be over there soon.  Dick said he was
very hungry, not having eaten at all that day.  I called Maria and
asked her tomake up sandwiches from the fixings (most of which were
Maria's) we had in our office refrigerator.  She also packaged several
emergency instruction manuals for Jerry, John, and me.  She checked
them to determine that all information was current including the
latest list of suspension personnel and their phone numbers.  She put
the manuals together with our emergency response supplies which
includes several bag-resuscitators.  The bag-resuscitators are
available to any cryonicist for $35.00 each from the American Cryonics
Society, P.O.  Box 1509, Cupertino, CA 95015.
 
While I was on the phone my wife Annie took the car out and gassed it
up.  Annie also prepared a thermos bottle of coffee.
 
Although neither Carmen nor I had yet been able to get TransTime
President Art Quaife onthe phone, I reached Judy Segall who said she
had talked with Art, who knew about the emergency.
 
I stopped by Seven-Eleven onthe way to the office and bought three
7-pound bags ofice (as much as my freezer chest would hold).  Jerry
had also said he would get ice.  I also picked up some candy bars and
a chicken sandwich for myself.  When I got to the office John was
there waiting and Carmen was busy making phone calls.  She had called
a physician who agreed to help us in this case.  This cooperating
doctor has worked with ACS and Trans Time before on suspensions and
was instrumental quite recently in getting the body of Carol, an ACS
suspension member, released from the county coroner without autopsy.
Carmen had also had additional discussions with Paul Segall and Judy
Segall.  Maria had called the office of ACS President Avi Ben)Abraham
and left a message.  Avi was out of the office and could not be
reached directly.  Carmen and I then made up a list of other people to
call and ask to stand by.  We started a log ofthe suspension
preparations.
 
Carmen phoned Art Quaife and we both talked with him.  I had been
concerned with whether or not the pick-up service had been called.
Art said he had called them.  They were to stop by Trans Time and pick
up some things such as 150 pounds ofice.  I suggested it would be
better to have the pick-up service go directly to the hospital rather
than coming to Trans Time first.  Jerry White would have ice and I had
some too.  Art pointed out the importance of having plenty of ice and
said he would probably stay with his original plan.
 
Art said that Judy and Paul and possibly Trans Time Vice Presi-dent
Hal Sternberg were going to go to the hospital so there was no need
for Jerry, John, or me to go.  I made the point that it was better to
have too many rather than too few people and that time was critical at
a death with many factors such as traffic jams, which could result in
delays.
 
I talked with Paul who suggested we call long-time cryonicist Jack
Zinn.  Jack is a past President of ACS and a practicing California
attorney.  I concurred.  Jack later called me and made some
suggestions about ways to gain custody of Lynne's body quickly, in
case of bureaucratic hassle.  We also called ACS attorney Jim Bianchi.
 
Carmen and I talked further with our cooperating physician.  Our
physician had been in contact with Lynne's doctor and also talked with
Dick (by phone).  Our physician said the prognosis was not good but
that the hospital would cooperate with us.  We arranged for me to pick
her up at a local hospital where she was then on duty, at the
completion of her shift.
 
Maria phoned the hospital in San Francisco and got directions and
photocopied portions of our San Francisco maps and drew in the best
route.  These maps were for John and anyone else who might be called
on should this turn into a long stand)by.
 
John Day took the supplies, sandwiches, and ice and took off for
Kaiser.  We spoke by phone with Jerry, who was just getting ready to
leave.
 
At about 5:30 I left theoffice.  Carmen was still handling the phones
but would transfer our line to her home later on.
 
I picked up our doctor at the local hospital which was about ten miles
from our office at 6:10p.m., our agreed meeting time.  It is about 55
miles to San Francisco Kaiser Hospital from the local hospital where
we met.  We took highway 280, a slightly longer but usually faster
route.  Our physician had been listening to traffic reports so we
could avoid traffic jams.  Since there were two of us, we could use
the commute lane.  We made good time, traveling about 70 mph most of
the way.  We stopped briefly to put up the convertible top and get a
soft drink from the trunk.  We took highway 1 through Golden Gate Park
to Geary Street, then Geary to the hospital.  This route proved to be
fairly fast.  We arrived at Kaiser in San Francisco about an hour
after leaving Kaiser Santa Clara, not bad at all for that time of day.
 
We parked in an employee lot near the emergency entrance.  I later
learned the lot we used was used mostly by the hospital security.
When we arrived at the seventh floor Jerry White came running up to
tell us Lynne had just died.
 
John, Jerry, Dick, Paul and Judy (who had also just arrived) were
there, and a young man from the pick-up service was waiting just
outside Lynne's room.  Our physician went to check in with the Kaiser
people and I went with Jerry to see Lynne.  Dick was bent over Lynne
crying.  I put my arm around him and told him that I had brought our
co-operating physician (also agood friend of Dick's) and that Lynne
was going to get a really good suspension.
 
Our doctor arrived shortly and also reassured Dick, then quickly
examined Lynne.  She [the doctor] asked for heparin and syringe.  John
had the heparin but had left the syringes in his car.  Our physician
said she coulduse a Kaiser Hospital hypodermic which would be quicker
than John going to his car.  After getting the syringe from Kaiser,
our doctor injected the heparin directly into Lynne's heart.  She also
injected heparin intravenously.  She started oxygen and got a saline
drip going to keep the line going into Lynne open.  Jerry video taped
much of this.
 
All this was far from instantaneous.  There were considerable time
delays.  Paul started chest compressions to help circulate the heparin
through Lynne's body.
 
Hospital personnel filled out forms to release the body.  Most of the
information for the forms was supplied by the pick-up service man.
 
John told me that the transport service had brought forms from Trans
Time for Dick to sign.  They were agreements between Dick and Trans
Time authorizing Trans Time both to suspend Lynne and to maintain her
in liquid nitrogen.  ACS was to have no role.  Although my
understanding was that such forms were under developmentfor use in
cases where Trans Time procures clients independ-ently of ACS, neither
Dick nor I had previously seen or reviewed them.
 
The man from the mortuary pick-up service said he had had to leave his
stretcher behind since there was not enough room in his van for "that
big box" and the stretcher.  The box he referred to is a Transportable
Cooler with a removable lining (see page 4 of the March, 1992 edition
of The Immortalist for a complete description).  I asked some Kaiser
Hospital security men to help procure a Kaiser stretcher, which they
said they could get from the morgue.  This was the first I had heard
that the Transportable Cooler, which the mortuary pick-up man
described as going all the way to the ceiling of the van, was to be
used.  Because the box was so high it would make it impossible to do
resuscitation with the patient in such a box.  The man from the
transport service and I looked it over and removed it from the van.
 
After a stretcher was obtained, Lynne was brought down to the van.
Our physician maintained chest compressions while there was a final
discussion on the advisability of putting Lynne in the box.  The liner
was removed from the box frame.  Lynne was placed on the liner and ice
put around her.  Our physician and Paul rode in thepick-up Van to
maintain resuscitation.
 
I walked Judy to her car, then talked to the morgue security man to
make sure that the box frame of the cool-down chest would be safe
until it could be picked up.  Then I drove over to the Trans Time
facility in Oakland.
 
When I arrived at the facility the crew from the hospital (previously
noted) plus Art Quaife, Eddie Monroe, Shawn Shermer, Harold (Frosty)
Waitz and Norm Lewis were there.
 
Paul and our doctor were giving Lynne resuscitation.  I joined them
and worked into a routine of either operating the bag or compressing
the chest.  Judy also helped.  Shawn was setting up for surgery, Hal
was trying to thaw perfusate, and Frosty was setting up for perfusion.
John acted as recorder and kept a written log of the procedure.
 
Jerry asked that I take video footage of the suspension and left his
camera with me and went on home after an hour or so.  When the
resuscitation was interrupted for the surgery I took video footage
until therewas some objection by the physician (perhaps she found it
distracting) so I stopped.  I then observed the procedure and made
myself available for errands.
 
The surgery and perfusion were complete by 3:30 at which time our
cooperating physician and I left.  The crew was just preparing to
transfer Lynne into a temperature chest for further cooling with dry
ice.
 
We were very fortunate to have use of the services of our cooperating
physician in this suspension as well as so many other people who were
at the hospital or facility, or helped or were willing to help in
other ways.
 
Although there is room for much improvement, Trans Time personnel
certainly did a good job, perhaps the best ever and deserve a pat on
the back.  Congratulations shouldn't stop there, however.
 
ACS volunteers, as usual, were the first on the scene.  We also did
much to alert and assemble personnel and were prepared for a long
stand-by should it have proved necessary, as it was for Carol, our
previous member suspended.
 
Lynne may someday offer her ownthanks and congratulations.
 
 
ACS Featured in Russian Newspaper
by Jerry White
 
ACS is featured in the July 1992 issue of the newspaper We, a joint
venture of Hearst Publishing and Izvestiya which appears in both
English and Russian editions.  The article, titled "Chance to cheat
death" (in Russian) and "Deep freeze preserves hope for the terminally
ill" (English edition) covers about half a page in the science section
and includes a large photo of an encapsulation at the Alcor facility.
 
The article is very favorable.  ACS President Avi Ben)Abraham and
Vice-President Jim Yount were interviewed and are quoted.  Paul
Segall, President of Bio Time, was also interviewed; he discussed
suspended animation using blood substitutes.  A noncryonicist, Estelle
Ramey, 75, a gerontologist and professor at Georgetown, commented that
"I have seen changes in molecular biology that were just unimaginable
when I was in school.  I think the field is wide open."
 
ACS is planning ways to followup this good exposure by developing
contacts and ventures in Russia.  The article is also valuable for
containing numerous vocabulary equivalents in Russian for technical
terms relating to cryonics specifically and life extension in
general.

--
 (Edgar W. Swank)
SPECTROX SYSTEMS +1.408.252.1005  Silicon Valley, Ca


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