Actually, most companies in this type of financial situation do the reverse split and keep the a/s the same so they can continue printing shares to finance the operation as needed.
Look no further than ERHC's own faq on the topic:
Q: If a reverse split was done would the number of shares the company can issue (currently 3 billion) also be adjusted downward to reflect the split?
Usually, when a reverse stock split is done, companies might elect to keep the number of shares they are authorized to issue at the same amount. Thus, if a company were authorized to issue 1 million shares and before a split had issued 500,000, then carries out a 500:1 split, the shares it can issue will still remain 1 million while the issued shares after the split are then only 1,000.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
