Next Board Meeting
The next Board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2008, at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) at 11:00 AM (PDT). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.
The next Board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, May 3, 2008, at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) at 11:00 AM (PDT). Members and the public are encouraged to attend.
We are pleased to have developed a cooperative agreement with Methuselah Foundation to rent them use of some of our laboratory equipment and space. Their initial work in Alcor’s lab will be an extension of protein work done at Arizona State University. In addition to generating some additional income from the arrangement, Alcor stands to gain recognition in any papers published as the result of their work.
Progress continues on the whole-body system. An outside contractor cut the custom chiller panel for heat exchange controls; and Hugh Hixon completed the wiring necessary for that part of the system. Programming continues.
Our equipment fabricator is currently building the new version of our liquid ventilation system, with all the modifications that came out of the previous round of testing done quite some time ago. Different pumps are required for this version, and the heat exchange coils were fabricated locally for improved cooling.
In order to pump down two Bigfoot dewars simultaneously, we purchased a second vacuum pump and the other necessary components. Since we tend to order dewars by the pair, doing this will save us about three months getting the dewars ready for patients after a new purchase.
Recently, while testing the boil-off rate of liquid nitrogen from Bigfoot-1, we took the opportunity to gather more data on the temperature differential between the bottom and top of the dewar, should nitrogen supplies be discontinued. (The dewars boil off between ½ and ¾ inches per day, on average.) There was a 5 degree difference between the boiling point of liquid nitrogen and the top of the pod. At the same time, there was a temperature difference of 40 degrees between the top of the pod and the bottom of the dewar’s lid.
Engineer Hugh Hixon estimates that when the last drop of liquid nitrogen evaporated, the temperature at the top of the pod would be no warmer than -180 degrees C. These excellent results are largely because of the conductive nature of the pods themselves, which are made of aluminum. If we were to lose access to liquid nitrogen, it would take more than 90 days to boil off all the nitrogen. The more efficient dewars would go significantly longer.
Due to Regina Pancake’s move to Arizona to work at Alcor, a new person, Michael Geisen, has been selected for the role of Southern California Regional Coordinator. Michael was a long-time participant in the regional transport team, but he took some time off to found a company. He has already begun organizing training sessions for local team members, and he participated in the stabilization of A-2340. Welcome back, Michael.
On March 31, 2008, Alcor had 851 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. Eleven memberships were finalized in March. We started emailing the applicants to forewarn them when extended fees are to be applied to their account. By giving them over a month of warning, they have time to finish their membership arrangements and avoid the fee.
We received 16 new applicants this month. We started offering prospective members the opportunity to complete their membership application over the phone. This time-saving option has been received quite positively.
We are pleased with recent efforts to increase the applicant queue. More applications have been submitted in the past four months (64) than the total number of applications submitted in the first eleven months of 2007 (51). Alcor’s free information package is also being requested by prospective members via Alcor’s website 215 times monthly, exceeding the previous yearly average of 150 requests per month. Also subscription to Cryonics Magazine has more than tripled in the last six months.
We changed answering services this month. Our previous service was unsatisfactory therefore we have replaced it with a medical-oriented answering service that appears to be performing well. This service was in place when the calls started on the most recent case, and we are so far satisfied with their performance. One of the advantages to this new company is that we can listen to the calls after the emergency situation concludes, so that we can refine our instructions for them. A broader description of what kinds of information Alcor needs when responding in an emergency will be posted to our blog at a later date.
The next Northern California Alcor meeting is Sunday, April 13, 4pm at the small clubhouse of Cypress Point Lakes Condominiums, 505 Cypress Point Dr, Mtn View.
If you want to join in the potluck, please bring some food to share, the popular potluck rule of thumb is “bring about as much food as you would care to eat were you by yourself”.
For detailed directions please click on the the link below:
Cryonics UK invites you to join them for the Annual General Meeting of Cryonics UK. Don't miss this opportunity to socialize with like-minded people to discuss topics of interest in the field of cryonics, attend lectures and workshops.
Date: Saturday & Sunday, May 3rd. & 4th. 2008
Time: 10am-4.30pm both days
Place: 4 Mount Caburn Crescent, Peacehaven, E. Sussex, BN10 8DW
Hosted by: Alan & Sylvia Sinclair (For many years Alan & Sylvia have been generously providing Food & Drink, a comfortable place for the Meetings)
More information about this event and to RSVP.
To learn more about Cryonics UK please visit their website at: cryonics.uk.com
ABC Nightline will air a segment about cryonics tonight, Monday, March 31st sometime between 11:35 pm and 12:05 am (ET).
Watch a clip of "Live to Be 150 … Can You Do It?", an ABC News Barbara Walters special, which air tomorrown on Tuesday, April 1st at 10 p.m. ET.
Over the weekend, Alcor completed an unusual non-confidential, last-minute case: the cryopreservation of Rose Selkovitch, A-2340. Rose was nearly 102 years old at the time of her cryopreservation.
Because of the last-minute nature of this case, Rose passed away as the standby team was still en route to her Escondido, California location on 29 March 2008. The transport vehicle had been deployed from Arizona with two team members and a member of the southern California team drove down. Due to advance negotiations, a dose of heparin was administered by hospice personnel after her pronouncement at approximately 20:30, chest compressions performed to circulate, and she was packed in ice upon pronouncement of legal death. By the time, the standby team and the funeral director were on-site, the cannulations completed and the washout ready to begin, Rose’s temperature was at 6 degrees C. An equipment problem and concerns about pumping the warmer blood from her chest cavity into her brain (which would warm it up significantly) contributed to a decision to not do a washout in California, but instead begin transport to Arizona for cryoprotection.
Transit paperwork was received in a timely fashion, and the transport concluded without incident. The surgery revealed that Rose had extremely large carotid arteries, and our surgeon suspected there was an aneurysm deeper in the carotid on the right side. Nevertheless, the blood washout went extremely well, resulting in a hematocrit reading that was undetectable. Cryoprotection began at 19:34 on 30 March and concluded at 00:33. Target concentrations of cryoprotectant were achieved in the brain, and first-stage cooling was begun shortly thereafter.
Support from hospice personnel and the local funeral home were instrumental in this case going well. Being just five weeks shy of her 102nd birthday makes Rose the oldest cryopreserved patient at Alcor today. She is our 80th patient.