Number 8
October 30, 2006
The News Backlog
More than six months have elapsed since our last bulletin. The reason is simple: Despite good intentions to sustain a publication schedule, other tasks have tended to take priority. Since Suspended Animation is not a membership organization, does not provide cryogenic storage, and does not “sell itself” to the general public, we feel less motivation to do PR than if we were a typical cryonics provider hoping to find new members.
However, our situation is changing. We are acquiring clients through the Cryonics Institute who expect to be (and should be) informed about our progress to upgrade standby capability. In addition we are entering an entirely new phase of our development.
In the first phase we resolved regulatory issues, established a core group of qualified employees, and equipped a new 8,000-square-foot facility that required an extended buildout costing more than $200,000.
During the second phase we began to develop full response capability, including newly designed equipment, new vehicles, and a complete rethink of many aspects of standby, stabilization, and transport methods. We trained team members and retained the services of paramedics, nurses, and surgeons. Since this was primarily a development phase, we still devoted relatively little effort to disseminating news or maintaining a web site.
In the third phase that is now beginning, we will present ourselves much more actively to the cryonics community. A series of newsletters will summarize our work so far, and in May, 2007 Suspended Animation will host a conference titled Advances in Human Cryopreservation.
Please visit our web site at www.suspendedinc.com to download a PDF file which describes this conference and offers a special discount for early registration. Our web site is undergoing a major overhaul which will remain incomplete for a few more weeks, but some new pages are already up, and the PDF file is ready for viewing.
New Equipment: A Local Rescue Vehicle
During the case that we performed in 2004, we were acutely aware of the limitations of the ambulance that we used to move the patient. The ambulance started reliably and ran well, but was almost 20 years old, and allowed very little space inside for procedures. It was not easy to drive, and was due for extensive maintenance. Clearly we needed a newer vehicle that we could use immediately for local transportation.
In January, 2006 we acquired a new Dodge Sprinter van which is actually a European design built by Mercedes. The Sprinter is unique in that it has a high roof, allowing us to work inside while standing fully upright. Although we are fully aware that a high-roofed van is unable to enter most multistory parking garages, we decided that the advantage of interior space outweighed the parking limitations.
Since we chose the longest version of this vehicle, with a 153" wheelbase, it allows room inside for a full standby kit (nine transport containers), gas cylinders, portable ice bath, ice chests, and other supplies and equipment which we may add in the future.
To improve the Sprinter for our purposes, our first step was to insulate and air-condition the vehicle. For insulation we used two layers of half-inch foam board. A Carrier RV air conditioner was installed in the roof. Since the air conditioner requires 110 volts AC, we ordered a pair of Honda generators, each capable of delivering 2,000 watts. These generators are unique in that they can be connected to run in tandem, synchronizing their AC output. They are also extremely quiet and reliable. For most applications we believe we will need only one generator, with the second as backup. If we decide to do washout in the vehicle, or other procedures requiring pumps and similar equipment, we may need to use both generators simultaneously. The generators are accessible through an access door that has been installed in the side of the vehicle. Their compartment is sealed to separate it from the interior where oxygen may be used.
To light the work area we chose the newest generation of high-output white light-emitting diodes (LEDs) which we ordered direct from the manufacturer in Hong Kong. One LED emits a focused beam of 130,000 millicandles, a measurement of light intensity per unit area. Although this sounds impressive, we decided we needed at least 200 diodes for ambient lighting. Since they cost only 10 cents each when purchased in bulk, LEDs are actually a cheap alternative to other sources, besides being extremely efficient, drawing only 20 milliamperes at 3.5 volts. When the diodes are wired series-parallel in groups of three, the total drain is about half an ampere, which a 12-volt car battery can supply for literally hundreds of hours.
After we finished installing dual power circuits (12 volts DC and 110 volts AC) we paneled the interior with washable white plastic and brushed aluminum. A folding ramp has been installed, allowing access via the side door. We have built a simple system for leveling the ice bath while it is being pulled up the ramp by an electric winch.
The Sprinter was chosen after a long period during which we inspected various options for transport, including conventional ambulances, extended ambulances (as used by fire departments), “step vans” of the type used by UPS and FedEx, “cutaways” which generally consist of a cargo area attached to a van cab, and full-size “box trucks” of the type that Alcor chose for its rescue vehicle.
Ambulances contain many desirable built-in systems such as 110 volt AC wiring and secure stowage for oxygen, but they have other features that are not of interest to us and take up valuable space. Step vans tend to be noisy and uncomfortable, and their basic design has remained almost unchanged for two or three decades. They are impractical for long distances. Box trucks are high off the ground, forcing the use of a lift gate, which reduces the versatility we were hoping for. Cutaways were an attractive option, but we liked the Sprinter more because of its headroom and totally open access between the front and rear of the vehicle. (A cutaway allows access only via a tiny doorway.) The Sprinter is extremely easy and pleasant to drive, which is a significant factor, since you never know who may be called upon to drive a vehicle in an emergency.
New Equipment: A Long-Distance Rescue Vehicle
The one disadvantage of the Sprinter is its limited size. To transport more team members over longer distances, and to enable procedures in the vehicle, we chose to buy a shuttle bus which has been custom-built for us without seats or side windows. This vehicle uses a Ford truck cab and chassis powered by a V-10 engine, with a body built by Starcraft. The load area in the rear of the bus is almost exactly the same as the load area in the box truck that Alcor is now using.
Shuttle buses are engineered to maximize comfort for passengers. Consequently they ride as comfortably as an ambulance—an important feature if we may perform some procedures while the vehicle is in motion. The bus is delivered with air conditioning already installed in the rear area, has a relatively low floor, and has an optional side door (originally intended for disabled passengers) which can maximize flexibility of access.
Our shuttle bus has been minimally equipped while we are working primarily to finish the Sprinter. When the Sprinter is ready for use, the vehicles will trade places and the bus will be our focus for development. When the bus is done, we may decide to deploy the Sprinter to a different area of the country, such as California, which is our highest-risk area for cases.
Preliminary photographs of the vehicles are on our new web site. Additional pictures will follow.
Visits to CI
When Ben Best informed us that the Cryonics Institute was hosting its semiannual meeting of advisors and directors in March of this year, two of us took advantage of this opportunity to visit Michigan. Three more staff from Suspended Animation visited CI for its annual general meeting in September.
The CI facility is ample in size, and the patient storage area is impeccably maintained. The cylindrical fiberglass cryostats are now fabricated by an outside source, and are quite beautiful, although we were even more impressed by the earlier box-shaped models which were hand-built by Andy Zawacki, requiring an immense amount of work.
For rapid cooling after vitrification, CI uses a rectangular insulated container that was designed originally to hold multiple patients immersed in liquid nitrogen. The mode of operation is relatively simple, featuring an injection nozzle for nitrogen vapor at one end and a fan at the other end. A valve controls the flow of gas, and LabView software controls the valve.
CI has commissioned a local cryogenics engineering company to build a half-size rapid cooling box for R&D work. The LabView software allows the user to define three target points for a typical scenario that requires rapid cooling initially, a holding period to enable annealing near the glass transition point, and then very slow cooling to a lower temperature, minimizing the risk of thermal stress and fracturing. The software controls the flow of nitrogen vapor in an attempt to match the cooling rates with the target points. Although the user interface is fairly basic, the utility of the system is obvious, and we hope to reach an agreement with CI to share this software and any future refinement of it, when we are ready to do vitrification in our own Florida facility. The scenarios in which we will vitrify patients here will be discussed in future news bulletins.
CI is proud that it has never increased its cryopreservation minimum, and its facility reflects its cost-cutting ethic. “Minimal” would be the word to describe office areas and the conference room. Still, Andy and Ben maintain the facility conscientiously, and we admired the dedication that has enabled them to run CI on a day-to-day basis with very little additional help, aside from the research work being pursued in a separate location by biologist Yuri Pichugin. Currently Suspended Animation has 19 clients who are CI members. Each of these clients has executed paperwork with us, requesting our standby procedures and establishing funding arrangements. While 19 is not a large number, it represents rapid growth in cryonics, and is a significant development for the Cryonics Institute, which never offered standby service prior to the agreement that we negotiated in 2005.
We are delighted with the close relationship that exists between Suspended Animation and the Cryonics Institute, and we look forward to further collaboration.
In future bulletins:
- New staff at Suspended Animation
- Major revisions to the Air Transportable Perfusion Kit
- Development of liquid ventilation
- Local vitrification and low-temperature transport
- Practice sessions and paramedics
- An Alcor training session at Suspended Animation
- Ice-bath options
- Vehicle access options
- Preliminary understanding with Alcor Foundation
- Our upcoming conference
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
