Alcor Patient Profile: Katie Kars Friedman

Katie Kars Friedman

Katie Kars Friedman was cryopreserved on March 15, 2016.

Long-time Alcor member, Katia (Katie) Kars Friedman, A-1221, was pronounced in Phoenix, Arizona on March 15th, 2016 and cryopreserved the same day. Katie, a neurocryopreservation member, is Alcor’s 145th patient.

Katie had been on our Watch List since 2009 but recently suffered significant trauma and a closed head injury from a fall, just two days after her 98th birthday. She was relocated to the Scottsdale area by air ambulance as she was not expected to survive. An initial standby was launched but was discontinued as she improved from critical to recovery mode. Over the next three months, she continued to make progress while under the care of numerous hospitals and care facilities, but multiple infections eventually became too much to overcome.

Once in the area, Katie was moved to an in-patient hospice facility where her end-of-life care was carefully monitored by Alcor. The hospice informed us that her expected death would automatically become a Medical Examiner’s case and be subject to an autopsy, due to her closed head injury. After discussions with the ME’s office yielded no possibility of a waiver, we reached out to the hospice physician to identify an alternate solution. All of Katie’s medical records from the last 3 months were gathered and supplied to the physician and a case was built to suggest that her mental capacities had returned to baseline, through her recovery, thus bypassing the head-injury rule. After careful review, the physician agreed with our assessment and stated that he would remove the requirement for autopsy.

A standby was reinitiated at the hospice. With team members in the patient’s room, cardiac arrest was witnessed and her pronouncement occurred two minutes later. Immediate stabilization and cooling commenced prior to the approximately 20 minute drive to Alcor, where the surgical team was ready and waiting. The patient’s nasal pharyngeal temperature was 15.6° C upon arrival and there was no delay in beginning neuro separation, cannulation, and cryoprotective perfusion. Initial indications suggest she received a high-quality perfusion, lasting 3.75 hours.

An Alcor Member Profile on Katie was published in 1998, reproduced below.


Alcor Member Profile
From Cryonics 1st Quarter 1998

Why three names: Kars is my maiden name; I wish to keep my family remembered.

Date joined Alcor: 1989

Place of birth: Kansas City, Missouri

City and state of current residence: Las Vegas, Nevada

Year of birth: 1918

Job(s) / volunteer work: Formerly hospital volunteer; now nutrition and self-help for friends and family.

Katie Kars Friedman

Marital status: Married

Children: None

Educational background: KC Junior College, two years.

Height: 5′ 1″; I don’t have far to fall!

Best feature: Like to help people.

Worst feature: Can’t tolerate intolerance.

Favorite author: Dr. Andrew Weil on alternative medicine.

Favorite books: Non-fiction health books.

Book you are currently reading: A Cure for Cancer; I usually read magazines.

Favorite non-cryonics magazine: Let’s Live and Life Extension health magazines.

Favorite movie: The Way We Were; also, Paul Newman movies.

Favorite TV show: Frasier! Also, Law and Order.

Favorite music: Classical. Also, Gershwin.

Favorite artist: Renoir; he does fat women so well.

Greatest adventure: Europe just after WW II. I needed to get from Paris to England to collect money owed me, to return to the US. At the English Channel my boat left before my train arrived. I spent the night in a hotel with a bombed-out roof. The next evening in Liverpool it took three porters to carry all my luggage, and I had no money to pay them, and I couldn’t understand a word with their English accent. I stayed the night in a good Samaritan’s wife’s house, and gave them some canned goods as a thanks! I finally was paid and did get back to the US.

Religion: Cryonics.

Most-prized possession: My privacy.

Most-prized possession you’ve arranged to have upon reanimation: None, because there’s nothing I ever want to see again.

Personal philosophy: I want to feel I’m in charge of my own destiny.

Short-term goal: Help others; keep up with health research for others and for myself, including diabetes for my sister, and my brother, who is on oxygen, and smart pills and other new research for the brain.

Long-term goal: At 78, can you have a long-term goal? If so, it’s my research.

Immediate goal upon reanimation: I’d like to have my body and intelligence redesigned.

Longer-term goal(s) after reanimation: Although it’s hard to plan without knowing details, something in the health field, perhaps become a nutritionist or doctor.

Achievement for which you are most proud: That I’m at this age and still have a useful energetic attitude. Plus success stories with people I’ve helped.

Favorite subject in school: English; I wrote a book of poetry.

Least-liked subject: Math.

Katie Kars Friedman

Pet(s): Previously for 13 years, my Himalayan cat.

Greatest fear: A snafu in my suspension.

Happiest memory: Going to Europe.

Secret ambition / fantasy: To get suspended properly.

First choice to share your dewar: Whoever wants to go; Jerry Searcy, Linda and Fred Chamberlain.

Personal strengths: Enthusiasm.

Personal weaknesses: Energy.

First became interested in life extension: Before 1989 read about it, or saw it on TV.

Reason: To have a chance in the future; I don’t believe in reincarnation or an afterlife.

Who was most instrumental in your sign-up: Carlos Mondragon.

Most effective thing you do to promote your own longevity (other than being an Alcor member): Very strict diet. Feed my mind and body. Lots of supplements. Green drinks, organic food. Silver colloidal spray. Rarely meats. Swim three times a week. Used to play tennis, but had to stop that after the neck injury; walk every day.

Least: Inhale car exhaust.

Cryonics idol(s) and why: Saul Kent. An innovator and he gets things done.

Why are you a cryonicist: I’m in cryonics because it gives me a comfort zone. Because this way, I don’t have to think about death in the same way I did before.

What advice would you have for other cryonicists: Most are smarter than I am; what advice could I give? Be aware of life style; the longer you’re around, the better the chances that research will catch up to you.