I believe I am the only person currently posting on this forum, who can claim to have participated in hypothermic suspensions on people, who later woke up, memories and personalities intact. While these people were only clinically dead for short periods of time, (usually less than an hour), I think this gives me an advantage, over most people working in cryonics, as I am familiar with the procedures on which cryonics procedures are based, and familiar with existing equipment.
(Disclaimer: All of this is written with the assumption that the employees at SA are the same as they were when I left, with the exception of Ms. Baldwin. We don't know who the SA employees are, because SA won't list them on their website.)
Suspended Animation is a company that offers to provides standby, stabilization and transport procedures, for members of Cryonics Institute and Alcor, at the time of legal death. The primary steps, once death has been officially declared, (by the attending physician, NOT by a layman member of a cryonics organization), are:
1. Initiate hypothermia and establish an IV, if one is not already in place.
2. Administer the meds, and circulate them, using chest compressions. (This will also facilitate the cooling process.)
3. Access the femoral artery and the femoral vein, and cannulate, (just as is done for some bypass procedures, in conventional medicine).
4. Using a standard perfusion circuit, with only minor variations, wash out the blood, replacing it with an organ preservation solution, and then recirculate, cooling to near zero degrees Celsius.
5. Transport the patient to the cryonics facility, for the vitrification process.
(This is very simplistic. I've left out minor, obvious tasks, like the way the ice should be packed around the patient, the insertion of temp probes, etc. I've also left out intubating the patient, as I have yet to be convinced it is a good idea to administer oxygen to a cryonics patient. However, if a reputable researcher provides evidence that would be beneficial, that is yet another task the employees at SA are not qualified to perform.)
The tasks above are not as unique, as the
status quo within certain cryonics organizations would have their potential clients believe. With the exception of only some very minor variations, (variations that could be explained to experienced medical professionals, in minutes, and would not require practice on dead animals), they are tasks that have been performed by medical professionals, all over the world, for many decades.
So , for the hundredth time, I ask, why is SA paying their staff members an average salary I estimate to be in the $70-75K dollar range, when none of them are medical professionals experienced in these procedures? Why do they feel the need to pay laymen that type of salary, and train them to perform advanced medical procedures on dead pigs? This is beyond unreasonable and foolish, especially when their qualified counterparts earn much less than they do. What do SA's highly-paid staff members do with 240 man-hours a week? I doubt they are doing any world-class scientific research, related to cryonics, as most of them aren't anymore qualified for that, than they are to perform the needed medical procedures, (other than maybe chest compressions).
Why do Ms. Baldwin and Saul Kent not think a facility less than half the size of the one they are in, with two full-time staff members managing an abundant team of paramedics, perfusionists, and people who have experience with femoral cannulations, (which could be people with animal research experience, funeral directors, retired surgeons or physician assistants), would be superior to what they have? It seems obvious, to me.
I have always been fascinated with profound hypothermia with circulatory arrest cases, so I was very excited about going to work at SA. I felt I had a lot to bring to the company, but trying to get anything done there felt like beating my head against a brick wall. Other than the design and fabrication projects of one man, (who didn't seem much interested in exploring, or building on, existing equipment), not much got done. The office staff was largely unsupervised, and free to do whatever they pleased. If I had wanted to sit at my desk, shopping on ebay, or communicating with my friends, all day, every day, I feel I could have done so, and no one would have complained. As long as I didnt complain about any of the projects, I believe I would have been considered a model employee. Perhaps I should have learned by the examples of others, and kept my mouth shut. It was a very unprofessional environment, not at all like my experiences in heart surgery, where people weren't afraid to suggest changes, or to defend their positions, at team meetings that included ALL of the team members, not just those who might be agreeable.
Why Saul Kent believes spending tons of money paying a bunch of amateurs to build DIY equipment and perform medical procedures is beyond me. The only explanation I can think of is that some very charismatic people have convinced him that the procedures are more "unique" than they really are. Even then, I don't understand how he can have faith in the skills of a group of people who have little-to-no relevant education and/or experience.
When I came to this forum, four months after leaving SA, with a number of very specific allegations of unprofessional and unethical behaviors, no logical responses were made. Instead, lies were told about me, on this forum, in private emails, and perhaps in private conversations. Yes, I did threaten to sue everyone I felt was participating, even though I felt some were innocent, in that they were taking the word of someone they trusted. I was quite hurt and distressed by the lies that had been told. If I found Harris' comment humorous, it was only because I believed him to be an innocent bystander, of sorts, someone who was just too foolish to realize he had been lied to. Again, I never wanted anything more than the person I believed to be primarily responsible for spreading those lies, to retract and apologize, and I asked him, directly. I did not do so, with any of the others, mainly because I didn't want to sue anyone...I just wanted the lies to stop.
As for that person accusing me of veiled threats, I was simply responding to what I perceived as veiled threats he was making toward me, in his musings about a certain cryonics organization suing someone. I was stating the obvious. If this situation were to wind up in a courtroom, Suspended Animation would have to explain why they believe my allegations against them have been false, justify their pig research/training sessions, and a number of other things. You can almost bet that would make the news, (for the humor in it, if nothing else).
For the newcomers, like Luke Parrish, I have good news and bad news, for you:
The good news is, cryonics is a logical extension to existing hypothermic medical procedures. There are medical professionals who are skilled in performing the needed tasks, and there is a lot of equipment that could be used, off the shelf, or with minor modifications.
The bad news is, it is my very strong opinion that there are quite a few people working in cryonics, (mostly people without medical or scientific backgrounds), who don't seem to want to build on that which already exists, and who seem very determined to keep their generous incomes, no matter how much unprofessional, or unethical, behavior it takes.
I estimate SA's current annual budget to be approaching $1.5M and, in my opinion, that money would be better spent buying professional equipment and retaining medical professionals to operate it, rather than on silliness like training sessions in which laymen try to learn to perform these medical procedures on dead pigs. If SA was to take a more professional, (and fiscally responsible), course of action, I believe there would be a lot of money, left over, that could be directed toward researching vitrification solutions, the proper cooling and storage parameters, etc.
Ooops, there I go, poisoning the well with my ridiculous notions, again.
The usual responses to this type of post are a)offers to provide private answers to people on the forum, b)lies, c) cries of disgruntled ex-employees "poisoning the well," d)personal attacks from people who don't even work at SA, or e) no response at all, so I hope no one is holdind their breath waiting for legitimate answers.