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]

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