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Alcor Southern California Meeting

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On Sunday March 29, EMT and Alcor Readiness Coordinator Regina Pancake and paramedic and Alcor Transport Coordinator Aaron Drake will attend the Alcor Southern California Meeting and will bring along the new Alcor icebath and Thumper combination. Also attending will be the Critical Care Research staff who will give a tour of the West Coast Suspended Animation transport vehicle. The meeting will be held at Alcor Board member Michael Riskin’s home in Fullerton, California from 06:30 pm to 08:30 pm.

For more information and RVSP, contact Regina Pancake
() or Aaron Drake ()

Alcor training sessions are currently being scheduled for Nevada (May
2009) and Texas (Summer 2009).

More details will be posted to Alcor News and the website when they become available.

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Alcor’s Scientific Advisory Board

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Alcor’s Scientific Advisory Board held its first meeting in Florida during December. A topic of discussion was the ongoing projects at Alcor and management’s plans for continuing development. Ralph Merkle and Robert Freitas also presented their plans for developing the medical nanotechnology that may be necessary to revive patients cryopreserved using current methods.

The point of the meeting was to establish how the advisory board could become more active in promoting cryonics and how the credibility of the field could be improved. Overall, it was an excellent meeting. The medical nanotechnology aspects of the meeting will be discussed in an upcoming issue of Cryonics magazine, and the advisory board intends to discuss other issues in more depth.

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Next Board Meeting

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The next Board meeting is scheduled for Saturday, April 4, 2009, at the Alcor facility (7895 East Acoma Drive in Scottsdale, AZ) at 11:00 AM (MST).

Members and the public are encouraged to attend.

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Research and Development

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Semi-Annual IACUC Meeting
Our semi-annual IACUC meeting was held in December, with its regular review of the animal protocols and facility inspection. The committee requested a few modifications to safety protocols and the development of standardizing forms for some activities. Everything else was in order.

Whole-body Vitrification System
We have begun the large task of documenting the whole-body vitrification software, and work continues to refine the enclosure.

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Administrative Update

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Membership Statistics
For the month of December 2008, Alcor had 875 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. 2 memberships were approved; no memberships were reinstated; 1 membership was cancelled; and no members were cryopreserved. Overall, there was a net gain of 1 member.

2008 Membership Statistics
Finalized — 72
Reinstated — 3
Cancelled — 32
Cryopreserved — 6
Net Gain — 37

TOTAL MEMBERS — 875
ANNUAL GROWTH — 3.1%

For the month of January 2009, Alcor had 876 members on its Emergency Responsibility List. 3 memberships were approved; 1 membership were reinstated; 3 memberships were cancelled; and no members were cryopreserved. Overall, there was a net gain of 1 member.

Applicant Statistics
For the month of December 2008, Alcor had 62 applicants for membership. Eight new applicants were added; 2 applicants were converted to members; no applicants were cancelled. Overall, there was a net gain of 6 applicants.

2008 – Number of Applicants
January — 55
February — 64
March — 68
April — 67
May — 66
June — 68
July — 67
August — 62
September — 62
October — 61
November — 61
December — 62

For the month of January 2009, Alcor had 65 applicants for membership. Seven new applicants were added; 3 applicants were converted to members; 1 applicant was cancelled. Overall, there was a net gain of 3 applicants.

Information Packet Statistics
For the month of December 2008, Alcor received 147 information packet requests; 7 were handed out during facility tours or from special request. 173 was the average total number of information packets sent per month in 2008 as compared to 129 in 2007.

2008 Information Packet Statistics
January — 275
February — 225
March — 169
April — 316
May — 274
June — 87*
July — 136*
August — 130*
September — 95*
October — 130
November — 88*
December — 147

TOTAL SENT — 2076
*due to computer issues this number is lower than usual.

For the month of January 2009, Alcor received 148 information packet requests; 14 were handed out during facility tours or from special request. 148 was the average total number of information packets sent per month in 2009 as compared to 173 in 2008.

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Improving Alcor’s Capabilities

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In February 2009 Alcor initiated an ambitious and coordinated effort to improve its training, stabilization, and cryopreservation capabilities. Alcor’s new Transport Coordinator and paramedic Aaron Drake is undergoing thorough education about the objectives and technologies of cryonics. Aaron will also play an important part in Alcor’s national training program. An innovative questionnaire is being created and refined to track and map all individuals that are available for case work listing their specific skills and experience. One room in the Alcor building is currently being transformed to a designated “readiness room” to track and monitor capability and (potential) cases. This week will also see the return of periodic case simulations at the Alcor building.

Alcor is further undergoing a comprehensive review of its standby kit inventory list, equipment, and protocols. Our short term objective is to quickly restore physical capabilities in areas with high numbers of Alcor members. When new equipment is made available to these areas, training sessions will be organized to educate medical professionals and volunteers about its use. The Alcor R&D committee will be engaged in a detailed review of stabilization technologies and protocols. After evaluating the available technical options for induction of hypothermia, cardiopulmonary support, and remote blood washout in terms of cost, effectiveness, and operation requirements, decisions will be made about which technologies to adopt and corresponding documentation will be generated.

The Alcor Transport Technicians policy will be reviewed to eliminate waste and strengthen its incentive structure. A closer look at Alcor’s capabilities and protocols in non-US countries such as the United Kingdom will be another priority for the organization.

Ongoing and specific progress reports on these topics will be published on the Alcor news blog and in Cryonics magazine. Please contact if you have any suggestions or want to be part of this endeavor.

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Case Summary: A-1407

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On September 8, 2008, Alcor member A-1407 suffered cardiac arrest while snorkeling in Barbados and was subsequently pronounced legally dead. He was traveling with a companion who knew to contact Alcor immediately. Because of the circumstances and the local legal requirements, an autopsy was unavoidable. After some negotiation, the coroner limited the investigation to the minimum necessary to determine the cause of death (heart attack), and he did not touch the brain.

Alcor received good cooperation from a funeral director, who had once attended a seminar on cryonics. The decision was made to cool the patient to dry ice temperature in Barbados because cryoprotection would not be possible at Alcor due to the long time period of clinical death, and starting deep cooling sooner would stop further damage that time at warmer temperatures would otherwise cause. The paperwork required to transport the patient was extensive, and necessitated the police conclude their investigation. Alcor involved the local US embassy to expedite the process, and the Deputy Consul in particular was quite helpful.

The patient was air shipped via Miami, where he was removed from the plane in order to replenish the supply of dry ice. Flight schedules being what they were, the patient then spent the next night in Atlanta before finally reaching Phoenix. All told, it took nearly five days to receive the patient.

Unfortunately little dry ice remained upon arrival at Alcor, and the patient’s temperature was near 0 degrees Celsius rather than the -79 degree temperature of dry ice. The patient was cooled back down toward liquid nitrogen temperature for long-term storage. A-1407 became Alcor’s 84th patient.

This case led to extensive discussion and review within Alcor of procedures for shipping patients on dry ice, especially overseas, with a view toward preventing the problems of this case from recurring in the future.

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Personnel Changes

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Alcor’s former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer, Jennifer Chapman, has been made Executive Director of Alcor. Tanya Jones has decided to pursue other opportunities, but has agreed to serve as Special Projects Director until the end of February. The board and staff thank Tanya for her many years of service going back to the 1990s, and wish Jennifer well in her new role.

Nationally certified paramedic Aaron Drake has joined the staff of Alcor as Transport Coordinator. Aaron brings with him years of experience as a firefighter, paramedic, cardiac technician, and FEMA disaster response worker. He is an enthusiastic addition to the Alcor team.

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How is the Alcor Patient Care Trust weathering the economic downturn?

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The Alcor Patient Care Trust (PCT) was under the active management of
Morgan Stanley advisors and was protected from some of the market
drop. The SP500 lost approximately 38% of its value in 2008 while the
Alcor PCT lost approximately 23% of its value in 2008. Despite this
clear over-performance in 2008, the PCT Board was not satisfied with
the absolute drop in the PCT.

Therefore, we have taken the following steps for 2009:

(a) added a new PCT Board member, with extensive
investing experience, to help set up a long term management program for the PCT;

(b) significantly reduced our market exposure while still expecting reasonable returns in the future;

(c) made the decision to regularly publish information about the PCT performance on the Alcor web site as soon as our volunteers complete the reporting.

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Donations Accepted on Alcor Website

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Now our valued supporters can make a charitable donation anytime just by clicking the “Donate” button on the Alcor website.

Alcor has a long, proud tradition of innovation and technical excellence in the field of cryonics. Your gift will make a difference in our quest for better cryopreservations.

Your decision to DONATE is sincerely appreciated. Remember donations are tax deductible.