X-Message-Number: 339
From att!CompuServe.COM!73337.2723 Fri May 17 01:40:07 EDT 1991
Date: 17 May 91 01:18:00 EDT
From: Brian Wowk <>
To: <>
Subject: Reply to Art Quaife
Message-Id: <"910517051759 73337.2723 DHJ22-1"@CompuServe.COM>

To: >INTERNET: 
 
        For the record, Mike Darwin is not my "backstage voice": I wrote my  
previous message without any communication with him at all.  I was not even  
aware he was on this mailing list. 
 
        So my account of the V.J. suspension was "seventh hand" and had "the  
same certainty and accuracy as the Weekly World News", according to Art  
Quaife.  This is a very interesting comparison, since my recollection of this  
suspension was based on an article I read in the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN  
CRYONICS SOCIETY while visiting Alcor in the spring of 1988. 
 
        A bit of checking revealed the specific issue as Vol 5., No. 3, June  
1988, J of ACS.  Let me quote the words of Dr. P.S. himself: 
 
        "I managed to maintain chest compressions, but not ventilation, owing  
        to the danger of possible contamination with saliva, which could  
        contain deadly pathogens such as those in T.B." 
 
In other words, this guy kept pumping on her chest, but didn't have a bag- 
valve mask, and was too wimpy to do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to maintain  
blood oxygenation.  The result was predictable.  He goes on to say: 
 
        "Although before transport the blood was quite acid (approx. 6.5),  
        the blood ph rose to above 6.8 and quickly approached 7.1 before  
        suspension begun." 
 
Normal blood ph is 7.4.  The rise in ph occurred only after arrival at Trans  
Time, and after buffers and perfusate were administered.  In other words,  
V.J.'s blood ph was < 6.5 during the whole transport.  People dead on the  
floor for an hour have higher ph's (typically 6.8).  V.J. had ten times  
normal H+ ion concentration in her blood during transport: this is protein- 
curdling ph!  This was the result of chest compressions without ventilation. 
 
        A few questions: 
 
*       Why, according to the above article, was the Trans Time team running  

        around at the last minute trying to find a vehicle to transport V.J.?
                Why wasn't this arranged well in advance? 
 
 *      Why didn't the transport team have a bag-valve mask, and buffering  
        medications? 
 
 *      Exactly why didn't the team give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to V.J.  
        (a very elderly lady, hardly likely to be harboring "deadly  
        pathogens")?  People who collapse ON THE STREET often get better  
        first aid from passersby!  Contrast this case with the Alcor  
        suspension team which, in one case I'm aware of, had to-- and did -- 
        administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to an Alcor patient.  (The  
        team member did get influenza as a result, but this "comes with the  
        territory" as he later said.) 
 
 
        I make no apologies for the "negative" tone of this, or my previous  
message.  This, Dr. Quaife, is what happens when you come onto this mailing  
list taking cheap shots at "can-rattler" Alcor, and obfuscate issues by  
accusing people of rumor-mongering and "seventh hand" reporting. 
 
        Your unwillingness (or inability) to respond to the issues raised by  
Mike Darwin is not very impressive either. 
 
 
                                                --- Brian Wowk 

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