Bill Faloon is Just as Much of a "Sensationalist" as Larry Johnson

In response to this article, by William Faloon, of Life Extension Foundation: http://www.depressedmetabolism.com/2009/10/16/death-is-gruesome/


I've been wondering, for nearly three years, now, if Bill Faloon was actually aware of the situation at the organizations he has been funding. I even sent a letter to his house, not that long ago, (which went unanswered, of course). Now, he appears with nothing more than the usual "smoke and mirrors" that have spewed forth from Alcor, and the LEF-funded organizations, for decades.

Faloon is comparing cryonics patients to people are being embalmed, buried, cremated, autopsied or decomposing, instead of to patients who undergo circulatory arrest procedures, in conventional medicine, and wake up again. There is no reason for anyone to be concerned with the "gruesomeness" of death, in a cryonics context. Unlike cryonics patients, no one expects the people who are being embalmed, buried, cremated, autopsied or decomposing, to wake up again!!! His entire comparison, (though quite eloquent), is absurd and meaningless. In fact, it's so ridiculous, I can barely bring myself to respond to it. (Maybe he felt the same, about my letter.)

Cryonics has a solid foundation in the hypothermic procedures, which have been performed by heart teams, for many decades. I participated in these procedures, for nearly a decade, myself. There is nothing "gruesome" about performing cannulations and perfusion, (the procedures SA and ALCOR are attempting to perform). Most of the time, it's barely even messy! Why does Faloon want to pretend that the only alternatives to the amateurish cryonics procedures he and his friends have been providing to cryonics patients, are the gruesome processes of death, when the logical alternative is to hire competent individuals who can provide quality patient care equivalent to that provided in conventional hypothermic procedures performed on the living?
(Note: Yes, I realize the "neuros" will be "gruesome", regardless, and personally, I am against the industry decapitating patients. CI, technically, performs "neuros," without decapitation, by isolating the head vessels. If ALCOR insists on doing "neuros," they should consider that route. Even if they insist on decapitation, I don't believe it needs to be anywhere near as gruesome and insane as what I have read about in ALCOR's case reports, but what else can we expect when people, sometimes with nothing more than high school diplomas and maybe a little "OJT," are allowed to chop off heads?)


Faloon: "Reality is that cryopreservation involves complex surgery whereby tubes are inserted into major arteries and veins in order to deliver special anti-freeze solutions into the brain."

The actual reality is that Suspended Animation, (the company Faloon helps fund through Life Extension Foundation, and which is but a short distance from Faloon's home), has been attempting to provide the most simple version of cannulation and perfusion, and failing miserably, for seven years, now. In spite of a grossly-extravagant payroll, they don't even have a staff member who is capable of competently inserting the tubes (cannulae) into major arteries and veins, (performing a femoral cannulation), or performing perfusion. If I were to tell any of the people I have worked with, in heart surgery, that one of the most prominent figures in cryonics is trying to pass off a femoral cannulation and the simple perfusion SA is attempting to perform, as "complex," they would laugh.


Faloon: "Cryonics is merely less gruesome than anything else that is done to a corpse."

Again, Faloon is comparing cryonics patients to corpses, while I would prefer to compare them to my patients in heart surgery, people who had plans to wake up again, after they were cannulated and perfused, (and 96-97% of them did).


Faloon: "I hope this essay helps put cryo-preservation in perspective with more mutilating and appalling forms of disposition that deceased humans are exposed to every day. It should serve to educate the media that ALCOR patients are not being mutilated or “abused” by the complex protocols that are used to provide them with the best scientific opportunity of future revival, whatever the probability may be."

Can Bill Faloon explain exactly why he is willing to fund hiring just about anyone off the street to perform what he calls "complex (medical) protocols," instead of insisting on the hiring of competent professionals? ALCOR patients, and Suspended Animation patients ARE being abused, by the amateurs who "play doctor" with them, and I believe any medical professional who has worked in conventional medicine, performing vascular cannulations and/or perfusion, would testify to that. The Ted Williams case report is only one example of the abuse, and there are plenty of others. http://cryomedical.blogspot.com/2009/10/review-of-alleged-ted-williams-case.html (This is not the full report, but the rest of it is just as ridiculously insane.)

I'm still left wondering if Bill Faloon actually knows how atrocious the level of patient care ALCOR and Suspended Animation provide really is. He's either deceptive or in denial, or he doesn't have a clue as to how good these procedures COULD be. He's seen cannulations and perfusion in the context of death, but I've seen them in the context of life. Which do cryonicists want, at the time of their "legal death"...something of the quality that dead people receive, or cannulations and perfusion of a quality such as that provided in heart surgery, (where 96-97% of the patients wake up again)?

The Most Lame Excuse in Cryonics

It appears, to me, Alcor keeps eight-to-nine fulltime staff members. During the time I was working in cryonics, Suspended Animation (SA) had between six and nine fulltime staff members, (some left, new ones were added), At last count, the anonymous souls at SA numbered six. I believe Critical Care Research (CCR) has four. In addition to these approximately 18 people, there's a lot of money paid to consultants with little-to-no medical and/or scientific education, or experience. What are all these people doing, 40 hours a week? (My guess, based on personal experience is that a lot of them are doing, "not much of anything productive, if anything, at all.")

Alcor recently used the excuse that:

"With only a few cryonics cases scattered across the county (sic) every year, having cryonics-trained medical professions always nearby to perform field stabilization is impossible." http://alcor.org/Library/html/professionals.html

This is an excuse I've heard time, and time again, in cryonics, and that is all it is...an excuse. In most cases, it is just as impossible for them to have their medically UNQUALIFIED personnel, nearby! Cryonicists would be much more wise to make their own local arrangements, for friends, their personal physician and a local mortician to place them in the ice bath, administer and circulate the meds, and ship them on dry ice, than to pay those whiz-kids from SA, (which Alcor now uses as a stabilization team), $60K to travel from South Florida to bungle the cannulation for the washout procedure they are selling, but can't competently provide.

With so few cases, Alcor and LEF should quit paying so many unqualified people to sit around their facilities, 40 hours a week, and use that money to keep some qualified medical professionals on retainer. As for that "cryonics training," it's pretty much a "no-brainer" for medical professionals who know how to perform cannulations and perfusion. They could save a lot of money on training sessions,(that, in my opinion, don't accomplish much of anything), by hiring people who already know what they are doing. (For example, how much has SA spent on those pig-training sessions and the time of unqualified staff members, trying to teach cannulations, when they could have an embalmer competent in performing that procedure, for about half the cost of one of their unqualified staff members?)

SA and Alcor are spending millions of dollars a year. SA wants to charge $60K, and Alcor wants to charge $150K, for their services, and they end up looking like clowns, 99.99% of the time. It would cost a lot less for them to actually provide quality services, than it costs for their lame attempts to make it look like they are providing quality services, when it is abundantly obvious they are not.