X-Message-Number: 2171 Subject: CRYONICS: patient orientation in storage Date: Tue, 27 Apr 1993 23:00:07 -0400 From: "Perry E. Metzger" <> > From: Brian Wowk <> > > I don't like storing patients horizontally because patients on > the bottom would have too much weight on top of them. You could use a > cassette system to protect patients from this weight, but then you > lose all the space advantages of placing patients in contact with each > other. > > Storing patients vertically also makes inventory simpler. I > believe that having all your patients visible (albeit in their > sleeping bags) is important for legal and accoutability reasons. None of these answer my question, which is "is horizontal storage better for long term patient integrity?" Given that horizontal live people stored in beds for a while develop bed sores, I wonder what horizontal storage of frozen humans does in terms of damage, let along vertical storage. My gut is that since we simply don't know what happens to a human after being frozen for 150 years, we should go with the most conservative possible stressing of the patient -- and horizontal is demonstrably less stressing than vertical. I agree that having cassettes for the patients is a pain and lowers storage volume -- but on the other hand our first concern has to be to obey the Hippocratic dictum "first, do no harm", does it not? I admit to being less than knowledgeable on this subject, so I'd like to hear what Brian has to say to directly address this question, that is, which is better for the patients (we know that vertical storage is better from the logistical point of view -- but then again, to be crude, so is burial). Perhaps an experiment or two would be in order? Perhaps Mike Darwin could comment on apparent vertical storage stresses, if any, in the patients he neuroconverted and then autopsied? I'd be especially interested to know how their spinal columns and other long structures held up after prolonged vertical storage. Perry Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2171