X-Message-Number: 6238
Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 23:42:04 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: CryoCare Receives New Patient for Cryopreservation

On Thursday, May 16th, around 6 PM, I received a totally
unexpected call from a man named Andrew Popper asking 
CryoCare to freeze his mother, Henrietta, who had died about 
twelve hours earlier in a hospital in New York City. 
 
CryoCare is cautious about taking last-minute cases where a 
patient has probably suffered ischemic injury and a 
relative is extremely distressed and may have unrealistic 
expectations about cryonics. In this case however it turns
out that Andrew Popper has had an active interest in cryonics 
for thirty years and is very well informed. He adamantly 
wanted to have his mother frozen even though we warned him 
that his delay in contacting us had made it difficult to 
provide a high-quality cryopreservation. He also emphasized 
repeatedly that he could pay for the procedure without 
experiencing financial hardship. 
 
After quick consultation with Mike Darwin and CryoCare's 
president, Brian Wowk, I grabbed a set of sign-up documents 
and hurried to the hospital where I met Andrew and his 
father, Max, a feisty man of 93 who claims to be the world's 
oldest marathon runner and has made frequent media 
appearances in this connection. Both Max and Andrew had power 
of attorney for health care and signed all the various 
documents on Henrietta's behalf, including a waiver allowing 
CryoCare to publish details of the case. 
 
A local mortician who has helped with previous cryonics cases 
arrived at the hospital around 10 PM, bringing with him many 
bags of ice. Henrietta Popper was transferred to his vehicle, 
and Andrew and I followed him to his mortuary in Brooklyn. A 
quick examination of Henrietta showed surprisingly little 
evidence of rigor mortis, and the mortician told us that the 
hospital where she died happens to have an especially good 
storage facility that provides excellent cooling. Bearing 
in mind other cases where some perfusion had been possible
despite long delays, Mike Darwin at the lab in California 
decided to attempt a perfusion. 
 
There were maddening problems dealing with the New York City 
bureaucracy, which has introduced complicated new regulations 
affecting cases of anatomical donation. (One of these 
regulations quixotically requires a date on the death 
certificate to be written in pencil, not ink.) After the 
first set of documents was rejected by the city's all-night 
office some time around 4 AM, a new set was drawn up, Andrew 
was fetched to add his signature, and the bureaucratic 
barriers were finally overcome just in time to transport 
Henrietta (whom I had repacked in additional ice) to the 
flight we had booked out of Kennedy Airport. 
 
She arrived at the lab in California later that day. Blood 
clotting and other problems with the circulatory system made 
perfusion almost impossible. Since I was not present during 
this phase of the case, I'll leave it to Mike Darwin to 
provide full details. 
 
Henrietta Popper is now making her slow journey down to -196 
Celsius, and Andrew says that his only regret is in failing 
to sign her up earlier. 
 
I share his regret because I wish the cryopreservation team 
could have been at the hospital at the time of death. I know 
that some people reading this have put off signing up for 
cryonics for months or even years, and I urge them to stop 
procrastinating and PROCESS THE DOCUMENTS so that they, too, 
don't turn into last-minute cases. The obvious priority is to 
make arrangements BEFORE you suffer a health emergency. 

Whether you choose to sign up with CryoCare, ACS, Alcor, or 
CI is a secondary matter.
 
Having said this, I'm still glad that Andrew finally chose 
cryonics for his mother, with whom he had often discussed the 
concept. I'm also pleased that we were able to respond 
promptly and efficiently, with help from a mortician whose 
staff literally stayed up all night wrestling with city 
bureaucrats. I note that the BioPreservation team was 
immediately available, and the only problems they reported 
were related to the physical condition of the patient. 
 
A more detailed description of this case will appear in the 
next CryoCare Report. Our schedule for the Report has been 
disrupted, incidentally, by my 6-week stay in California in 
connection with the Timothy Leary case. Members of CryoCare 
and subscribers to the Report will receive a double-size 
issue around the beginning of July. It will also appear on 
our web page (http://www.cryocare.org/cryocare) shortly after 
that time. 
 
--Charles Platt 


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