September 13, 2018

Herbert Drazen, Alcor member A-2887, a non-confidential, whole body member, was pronounced on August 13, 2018 (after an unknown amount of time before being discovered) in Pomona, New York. He became Alcor’s 160th patient that day, and arrived at Alcor for cool down on August 20, 2018.

(All times are in Mountain Time in 24-hour format.) On Monday, August 13, 2018 at 09:03 a Telemed alert was received, informing Alcor that non-confidential Alcor member Herbert Drazen of Pomona, New York had been pronounced deceased. The member lived alone in a small upstate New York community about an hour north of Manhattan.

The patient had been found in his home by a relative who had received a call from the dialysis center that the patient was late for an appointment. The police and paramedics were present at the time and they immediately released the patient as he was not considered to be a coroner’s case.

With the assistance of Alcor’s local mortician, a New York mortician was contacted and sent to retrieve the patient and pack him in ice as quickly as possible. Since the New York Mortician estimated that the patient had died approximately 24 hours (and perhaps considerably longer) prior to being found, it was decided by the Alcor Deployment Committee that it would not be possible to perfuse this patient. Therefore, the decision was made to pack the patient in dry ice as quickly as possible and then have him air shipped back to Alcor to be placed into liquid nitrogen. The New York mortician was very cooperative and helpful.

The patient departed JFK Airport in New York on Wednesday, August 15, 2018, at 15:06 and arrived at Phoenix, Sky Harbor Airport at 20:55. The patient was placed into cooldown at Alcor on August 20, 2018.