From: S.J. Van Sickle (sjvan@csd.uwm.edu)
Date: Thu Jul 13 2000 - 07:47:20 MDT
On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Brian D Williams wrote:
> This is good news, now not only is FM-2030 in the excellent hands
> of the folks at Alcor, but apparently he was suspended using the
> recent breakthrough in protocol. Very good news indeed.
Sadly, Brian, no...
Alcor used the same base perfusate and cryoprotectant as usual. They
weren't quite set up for the new system yet. If he had held on for even a
couple more weeks, things might have been different. They *are* dancing as
fast as they can...
What was truly stunning, though, was the success of the new surgical
technique Linda described in another post. FM arrested without any
warning, which wound up involving ER doctors, police, coroners and the
like. Between that and bad airline scheduling, there was a *very* long
transport to Alcor, and no local support other than delayed ice cooling.
In the past, we would have been sadly shaking our heads and preparing a
"straight freeze" i.e. without cryoprotection. When such cases had been
attempted before, disasterous edema and minimal cryoprotection resulted.
However, with FM they decided to try the new surgical procedure. It
a enabled lower pressure and flow than had ever been done before, and
Alcor's surgeon had been able to deal with blockages. To almost
everyone's suprise, the capillary bed appeared intact, and with
*extremely* careful control of the cryoprotectant ramp and pressure, they
were able to prevent edema and cryoprotect FM to a level as high as any of
Alcor's *best* cases in the past.
This bodes well not only for the "perfect" cases that will benefit the
most from the new protocol, but also for the majority of cases where there
is no warning and where no stand-by was in place.
This is very good news.
Steve Van Sickle
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