X-Message-Number: 2153
Subject: Patient positioning
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 1993 20:23:55 -0400
From: "Perry E. Metzger" <>


From: Brian Wowk <>
> 
> Rich Schroeppel:
>  
> > Query:  How are the patients supported in the cold room?

>         Patients in their sleeping bags are held inside a net and 
> lowered into the room.  (I do not see a need for bulky cassettes.)  
> They are stood on their heads on the bottom layer of ballast.  Since a 
> hundred years is a long time to stand on your head, we will provide 
> pillows (I'm not be being facetious).  Loose space between patients and 
> adjacent ballast is stuffed with insulation so that movement is not 
> possible.  Patients do not support any weight above them other than a 
> 6" layer of fiberglass insulation.

Now, as I understand it, standing patients vertically is done because
of the state of dewar design. However, given this whole new design for
patient storage, perhaps it would be less stressful on the patients to
store them horizontally? They take up the same volume either way. It
might also make sense to place the patients on some sort of
form-fitting surface, perhaps even sand escavated to fit patient
contours, to evenly distribute the stresses across the bearing surface
of the patient.

Perry Metzger

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