X-Message-Number: 23064 Date: Tue, 09 Dec 2003 10:58:13 -0700 From: Mike Perry <> Subject: Alcor's 59th Patient The following report by Tanya Jones is from the Dec. 7 _Alcor News_ (http://four.pairlist.net/pipermail/alcornews/2003/000022.html). MRC is the Mobile Rescue Cart, a gurney-based apparatus containing an ice bath and other equipment which can be added or exchanged depending on circumstances. Under good conditions, as happened here, the patient is lifted into the MRC immediately after pronouncement so that cooling and cardiopulmonary support can begin immediately (in this case using a new, LUCAS unit). Alcor Accepts 59th Patient A four-day standby concluded with the cryopreservation of Alcor's 59th patient. Pronouncement occurred at 11:40 a.m., Dec. 3. Transport procedures were carried out quickly, and the team left the hospice with the patient after 20 minutes of surface cooling, the application of cardiopulmonary support, and medication administration. CPS continued until shortly before the patient was transferred to the operating room table for the neuroseparation procedure. The new LUCAS cardiopulmonary support device performed well, and the patient's oxygen saturation levels were observed to rise from 65% to 83% for a time. Aside from a slight difficulty in locating the left jugular vein, cryoprotection was carried out quickly and with few complications. The ramp was concluded within 5.5 hours of pronouncement, when the target molar concentration was achieved. Cooling to -114C was completed in under 24 hours. As a quick summary: the patient was local, pronouncement and protocol implementation were prompt, the hospice was otherwise also supportive, the team performed well. This patient by appearances received what Case Photographer Charles Platt termed, "an excellent suspension." He continued that this was, "a textbook example of the benefits that can result from experienced field personnel treating a patient who has moved near to the facility and is following a relatively predictable path toward mortality, in a location where the MRC can be brought to the bedside and death can be pronounced immediately." A more complete report will appear in _Cryonics_ magazine. [TJ] Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=23064