"S.J. Van Sickle" wrote:
>
> On Tue, 20 Mar 2001, Michael Lorrey wrote:
>
> > Cancer is a chronic condition, not something that progresses to critical
> > status in a matter of hours, so the situations are decidedly different
> > than, say, crushed bones or depressurization damage.
>
> And people don't get cruched bones and, say, frostbite at the south pole?
> Yet they still stay for six months.
At the main base, yes, where such is treatment, though most get shipped
out if injured so as to be incapacitated. There is many times more
workspace at the various antarctic bases than there is aboard ISS, and
far more people. When my cousin was down there, the main base was
considered paradise relative to their camp in the Katabatic canyons. At
his camp, the bathroom was an apple crate with a garbage bag in it,
exposed to 60 mph winds. Average daily caloric budget was about 10,000
calories per person, resupplied by airdrop and occasional helicopters.
When I say crushed bones, I'm not talking simple fractures, but real
significant crippling hemmorages from not getting out of the way of
equipment quickly enough, not judging velocity properly, etc. You can
injure yourself significantly, especially after such significant calcium
loss as what happens in space, but not in Antarctica. Some astronauts
take 2 years to recover from a long duration space flight, and that is
without any injuries.
>
> And anyhow, while cancer won't kill within hours, rapid treatment
> makes a world of difference to the survival rate. Most everyone I know
> who has been diagnosed with cancer started receiving treatment within
> days, at the insistance of doctors who said there was no time to waste.
Yes, the person with cancer, as I recall, was either a physician or
medically trained enough that they could self administer chemotherapy
shots delivered by airdrop. Can't do that at the ISS either.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:59:42 MDT