It happens that too often we learn of the death of a member of the kink community because they took a very big risk.  Sometimes, as in this case, they knew everything about what they were doing.  Unfortunately, that is little comfort to those left behind.  Please heed Archean's warning:  --Celia

(This is a reposting of Archean's FetLife Journal Entry, shared with permission.)

Archean and the staff at Kink Engineering are sad to report that Mad_Scientist (Matt) passed away on May 23rd, 2012, at the age of 35. His death was accidental. He was a great friend, a brilliant mind, and an exceptional lover.

Matt was awesomely creative and scientifically curious. His first focus for his customers was always safety. Many of you will remember Matt commenting in the vac bed groups and taking a strong stand against the idea that a person could safely do vac bed bondage whilst alone.

Kink Engineering's philosophy continues to be safety first; therefore, even though it hurts to say it, we have a duty and responsibility to the community and to our past and future customers to be completely honest here.

Matt died, because he made a stupid decision to go into a vac bed alone, while Archean was out of town. He thought he had figured out the safety issues and created another layer of safety; he was wrong and it cost him his life.

There is no way that we at Kink Engineering could ever cover up the real cause of death and pretend it happened any other way, to do so would be a disservice to our customers, the community, and to Matt, who was adamant that vac beds be used responsibly and safely.

Matt's death was a direct result of prolonged neck compression from the neck gasket. The bed he chose to go in had been custom fitted to Archean, who has a much smaller neck. The baro receptors in his internal carotid arteries signaled to his body that his blood pressure was dangerously high, and this sent off a vagal response to slow the heart. Since the signal of high blood pressure could not be relieved, Matt lost consciousness and the vagal response caused his heart to stop completely.

Had there been a person to assist outside the vac bed, they would have been able to get him out at the first sign of trouble or non-responsiveness. All Matt's safety contingency plans relied on him still being conscious enough to implement them, and thus, they were useless.

Never, ever get into a vac bed alone. There is no safe way to do so. The man who understood vac beds the best, in the whole world, wasn't able to do it safely. Please do not allow this scene to replay with another person's death.

We will miss you and love you forever, Matty.