Jerry Leaf

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Jerry D. Leaf (April 4, 1941 – July 10, 1991) was Vice President of the cryonics organization Alcor Life Extension Foundation, and President of the cryonics service firm Cryovita, Inc., until his cryopreservation by Alcor following a fatal heart attack in 1991. He also worked as a cardiothoracic surgery researcher at the UCLA School of Medicine, co-authoring more than 20 papers from the laboratory of Dr. Gerald Buckberg. During the late 1970s and 1980s, Leaf transformed the field of cryonics by introducing technologies and procedures of thoracic surgery, especially heart-lung bypass, for improved blood vessel access and life support of cryonics patients. Leaf is most famous for developing with Mike Darwin a blood substitute shown capable of sustaining life in dogs for 4 hours at near-freezing temperatures.[1]