Friday, July 21, 2006

Miracle Max was Right!

Miracle Max: See, there's a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead. Now, mostly dead: he's slightly alive. All dead, well, with all dead, there's usually only one thing that you can do.

Inigo: What's that?

Miracle Max: Go through his clothes and look for loose change.

Of course, that fantastical exchange between Billy Crystal and Mandy Patinkin occured in the 1987 surprise hit, Princess Bride. So of course I was surprised to read this latest article from Wired:

Alam goes to work on the chest, removing part of a rib to reveal the heart, a throbbing, shiny pink ball the size of a fist. He cuts open the aorta – an even more lethal injury – and blood sprays all over our scrubs. The EKG flatlines. The surgeons drain the remaining blood and connect tubes to the aorta and other vessels, filling the circulatory system with chilled organ-preservation fluid – a nearly frozen daiquiri of salts, sugars, and free-radical scavengers. Her temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit; brain activity has ceased. Alam checks the wall clock and asks a nurse to mark the time: 11:25 am. But 78-6 is, in fact, only mostly dead – the common term for her state is, believe it or not, suspended animation.

Whoa. I guess that could only mean that somewhere out there a six-fingered man is conducting pain research on "The Machine."

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