ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE CRYONICS INSTITUTE
The Cryonics Institute has successfully concluded negotiations for a contract to offer Standby and Transport assistance from the Florida cryopreservation research company Suspended Animation, Inc. CI Members who wish to receive these services must provide additional funding, part of which can be through life insurance.
"Standby" refers to a team of fully-equipped cryopreservation professionals waiting by the bedside of a cryonics patient close to legal death or at risk of legal death. If the cryonics patient deanimates and is pronounced legally dead by a physician or qualified nurse, then the Standby team will immediately begin the application of cryonics stabilization procedures, including ice-bath cooling and the use of a heart-lung device.
"Transport" includes moving the cryonics patient from the location where death was pronounced to the CI Facility in Michigan. During Transport the Suspended Animation team will continue to apply procedures intended to prevent damage to tissues, particularly the brain. These procedures will include blood washout and may include cryoprotectant perfusion (depending upon whether the patient wishes CI or Suspended Animation to do the final perfusion).
Details of the Standby and Transport Services Protocols and Fees can be found on the Cryonics Institute website:
http://www.cryonics...._Animation.html
The normal funding mechanism for CI Members is to have a basic fee for perfusion, cool- down and long-term storage -- currently $28,000 Option One and $35,000 Option Two. Additionally, for Members not living in the Michigan area CI has a Local Help Rider to pay for services of a remote funeral director, which may include heparinization, some CPR, packing in ice and transport to Michigan. For the Local Help Rider CI Members are expected to allocate additional funding -- up to $5,000 in the US and up to $15,000 overseas. This can be included in their insurance or in prepayment.
The Suspended Animation agreement is simply an extension of the Local Help Rider. The SA Rider not only provides for payment for a remote funeral director (whom Suspended Animation would work-with and pay), but for post-mortem standby and transport. Formally, the new agreement is not
much different from the usual Local Help Rider except that the protocol is more extensive, the price is higher and the Rider would be (initially) restricted to US Members. Insurance funding is currently only available for procedures that Suspended Animation performs after pronouncement of death.
Pre-mortem Standby must be funded through pre-payment or a special bank account. CI Members interested in Suspended Animation Standby should examine the information available on the CI Website at
http://www.cryonics...._documents.html
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ANNOUNCEMENT BY SUSPENDED ANIMATION, INC
The Cryonics Institute and Suspended Animation, Inc. have signed an agreement defining terms under which CI members may choose to receive standby/transport assistance using personnel, equipment, and medications supplied by SA.
Suspended Animation, located in south Florida, is pursuing research and development
to enhance standby procedures. Our assistance for participating members of CI will include:
- Paramedics and other trained personnel who will travel to the bedside.
- Medications, provided under contract with Critical Care Research, to mitigate ischemic injury
- Mechanical cardiopulmonary support and ventilation via a custom-designed Michigan Instruments Thumper.
- Rapid cooling in a newly modified portable ice bath.
- Vascular access by a surgeon followed by washout with a transport solution
- Immediate air transportation to the cryonics organization of which the patient is a member.
- A choice of whole-body glycerolization or the new vitrification solution eveloped in-house by CI.
While we expect that future technology will enable cell repair, we also believe that severe damage caused by a prolonged period of warm ischemia may prevent repair under any imaginable scenario. Therefore we feel that prompt treatment after legal death is highly desirable.
CI members who wish to receive treatment through Suspended Animation will be required to execute additional paperwork, primarily to establish funding arrangements. Some prepayment will be required to guarantee standby deployment.
For further details, including copies of relevant documents, a schedule of fees, and a detailed protocol describing the procedures that Suspended Animation has established, please see the Cryonics Institute website:
http://www.cryonics...._documents.html
To receive email updates every two to four weeks directly from Suspended Animation,
describing our activities and our progress toward enhanced standby capability, please send your request to info@suspendedinc.com, stating the name of the cryonics organization of which you are a member.
Suspended Animation does not provide service to the general public. We are a research and development company partnering with cryonics organizations that are interested in refining the process of human cryopreservation, which remains an experimental procedure at this time. Currently we have a contractual agreement with the American Cryonics Society in addition to our new agreement with the Cryonics Institute.
