Our second case in February 2006 was the sudden demise of a member
in Ohio, A-1237. The 54-year-old gentleman with no known medical
conditions died in the early morning hours of the 28th. His wife
contacted Alcor after calling 911. With the cause of death uncertain,
the police detectives contacted the Coroner's Office. We discussed the
possibility of a minimally invasive autopsy to establish the cause of
death (information which is also of use to us). Unfortunately, county
policy dictated that if an autopsy were to be performed, it would be
comprehensive, compromising the cryopreservation. Furthermore, the
autopsy would not even be scheduled until the next morning.
Because of the member's long-time and strong desire for cryopreservation,
his wife waived the autopsy in order to respect his wishes. The patient
was released to a cooperating funeral home that same afternoon and
transported to Arizona via commercial carrier. He is cooling now and
is Alcor's 74th patient.
April 29, 2006 Update
Some further details on last month's case: One of our members
(A-1237) suffered a sudden cardiac arrest sometime during the night
of Feb. 27- 28, 2006, while at his home in Ohio. He lay undiscovered
until his wife checked on him at 9:30 local time on the morning of
the 28th. Paramedics were called, and the Coroners office initiated
an investigation. After some discussion the wife wanted to waive the
autopsy. (The Coroner had a policy that any autopsy would be fully
invasive.) Luckily this option was allowed and the autopsy was avoided.
Toxicology samples were taken to assist in the determination of causes of death.
The patient arrived at Alcor at about 11:30 a.m. Mar. 1. With a delay
of between 34 and 42 hours since arrest, there was no cryoprotection.
Instead we decided to take a few moments to establish acoustic monitoring
of the brain, a slight change from our previous protocol in this sort of
case; cryogenic cooling then commenced. This is Alcor's 74th patient.
SOURCE: Preventing Autopsy for Alcor Member A-1237 (Case Summary)