Case Summary: Daniel Parker

Daniel Parker, Alcor member A-1350, was declared legally dead on the morning of December 16, 2014 in Torrance, California. Later the same day Parker, a 91-year old neurocryopreservation member, became Alcor’s 132nd patient.

At 8:00 am on Tuesday December 16, 2014, we received an alert from our emergency communications system initiated by the member’s daughter. The time of clinical death was unknown but was probably sometime in the 12 hours prior to discovery at 7:30 am (all times in Arizona time zone). The time of pronouncement was 8:00 am. We discussed several scenarios to cover a lack of knowledge of the conditions. Alcor’s partner, Suspended Animation (SA), was contacted and mobilized rapidly. The SA team arrived a little over two hours after pronouncement and was able to administer medications. The patient was driven in SA’s emergency vehicle and arrived at Alcor at 6:24 pm.

The patient’s (pharyngeal) temperature on arrival at Alcor was around 8°C. It was observed that the carotids were big and soft but during the perfusion process large clots were pushed from the vertebrals. Flow was poor from the very beginning. Perfusion was discontinued when brain swelling become obvious. At 9:28 pm, the patient was transferred to a cool down dewar. At 12:45 am on December 17, the burr hole temperature was -43°C and the pharyngeal temperature -25°C. Eyeball inspection of the data did not show an isotherm, suggesting that we achieved substantial cryoprotection. A CT scan should enable us to confirm or challenge that assumption. Mr. Parker reached liquid nitrogen temperature on December 23. He had been a member since September, 1991, and was born in Scotland in 1923.