Thank You

Mike: Unfortunately, what is required is clinical acumen in order to determine how to treat each patient optimally. A one-size-fits-all stabilization protocol, such as is now is being used in cryonics is not tenable. Currently, critical care medicine is undergoing a revolution based on the growing awareness that standardized protocols for managing conditions such as sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and congestive heart failure simply do not work because the patients are very heterogeneous; not only are the details of their circumstances very different within the group (say septic patients), so are their genetics. This makes both treatment and statistical analysis of outcomes much more complicated and problematic than previously thought. Uniform fluid and ventilator management strategies are proving unworkable and very injurious to large sub-groups of critically ill patients (and are increasingly being abandoned by the best clinicians).

In short, there is no substitute for good clinical skill in managing patients, and cryopatients are no exception. In fact, their extreme condition (typically far more injured than "living" patients), demands even more clinical skill and good judgement.

I think Mike has placed his finger on the one thing I find most offensive, in cryonics. Certain people seem to believe you can just grab anyone off the street and make a good cryonics clinician out of them. This is not true, and people who believe this are seriously underestimating the importance of quality care providers for cryonics patients. It is not just about finding someone with the minimum amount of intelligence required to pack ice around the patient, administer chest compressions and follow some rigid protocol. It takes years of education and experience to be able to make the necessary observations, and decide on courses of action that are most likely to benefit a patient. This is not something someone is going to teach shop workers and office personnel who have the opportunity to see one patient in three years, especially when they don't have any sort of academic foundation, with little-to-no understanding of anatomy, physiology, or pharmacology.

My sincere thanks to Mike Darwin for the time and attention he put into his responses to my question, as well as that he has put into his other recent posts on this forum. I especially thank Mike for his detailed discussion regarding anoxic CPS, something I will save to pore over, in my studies. I hope there will soon come a time when cryonics protocols based on the works of people like Mike will be carried out in the field by qualified, experienced clinicians, such as myself.

Again, I thank Mike for his recent contributions to this forum, and look forward to more.