World's first cryopreserved human being

[Still Waters 50,925]

It was late evening on January 12, 1967 and three men were laboring over the body of psychology professor James Bedford, who had just died from kidney cancer at the age of 72.

But while the manner of Bedford's death - in bed at a hospital in Glendale, California, was not unusual - what happened next certainly was.

Bedford was about to become the world's first cryopreserved human being – and now lies suspended in liquid nitrogen in a vault in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Although the 72-year-old said before his death that he didn't expect ever to be revived, scientist Robert Nelson, one of the trio who carried out the preservation process, says he is confident that Bedford will one day live again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4156504/Pioneer-cryogenics-speaks-patient.html

[Yamato 13,197]

Cryopreservation is no aid to the other side of the story, bringing a person back to life.   The one isn't the pathway to the other.  If/when they can bring people back to life, they'll have to practice on the ones that just died three or thirty minutes ago.   Once that starts to happen more and more frequently, the old guy dunked in the preservatives will seem obsolete.   But it's a good sales pitch for the people who want to live forever.   My guess is they'll start to mess around with the old guy a hundred years before they (really) know what they're doing, and they'll mess it up and for all of their efforts, he'll twitch a couple times.

[Lilly 34,336]

When you're dead, you're dead.

[psyche101 41,455]

Interesting that some feel the possibility exists that he may live again. The article states he was stored with his "pothead" friends for two weeks, had been to a morgue, all sorts of stuff. It sounds like the body was exposed for some time before preserving. If that is the case, surely there will be far too much decay to ever revive the man. 

[Four Winds 1,655]

22 minutes ago, Lilly said:

When you're dead, you're dead.

I guess that would depend on the definition, but science is pushing the boundaries. 

“When you are at 10C, with no brain activity, no heartbeat, no blood – everyone would agree that you’re dead,” says Peter Rhee at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “But we can still bring you back.”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140704-i-bring-the-dead-back-to-life

Edited January 31, 2017 by Four Winds

[Eldorado 55,503]

7 hours ago, psyche101 said:

Interesting that some feel the possibility exists that he may live again. The article states he was stored with his "pothead" friends for two weeks, had been to a morgue, all sorts of stuff. It sounds like the body was exposed for some time before preserving. If that is the case, surely there will be far too much decay to ever revive the man. 

"They injected his body with dimethyl sulfoxide, a chemical that was thought to help preserve the organs and tissues. Then they froze the body with dry ice before transferring it to a liquid nitrogen environment.

Today, the methodology would be thought crude. Vitrification, which provides the benefits of cryopreservation without the damage caused by ice crystals, was not introduced until the 1980s. In addition, DMSO is no longer used on its own, and almost certainly damaged Bedford’s brain beyond repair."   http://www.informationsociety.co.uk/cool-dude-james-bedford-has-been-cryonically-frozen-for-50-years/

[Cookie Monster 8,030]

22 hours ago, Still Waters said:

It was late evening on January 12, 1967 and three men were laboring over the body of psychology professor James Bedford, who had just died from kidney cancer at the age of 72.

But while the manner of Bedford's death - in bed at a hospital in Glendale, California, was not unusual - what happened next certainly was.

Bedford was about to become the world's first cryopreserved human being – and now lies suspended in liquid nitrogen in a vault in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Although the 72-year-old said before his death that he didn't expect ever to be revived, scientist Robert Nelson, one of the trio who carried out the preservation process, says he is confident that Bedford will one day live again.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4156504/Pioneer-cryogenics-speaks-patient.html

This should be available on the NHS. Or at the very minimum for the heads of the deceased.

[psyche101 41,455]

On 1/31/2017 at 8:15 PM, Eldorado said:

"They injected his body with dimethyl sulfoxide, a chemical that was thought to help preserve the organs and tissues. Then they froze the body with dry ice before transferring it to a liquid nitrogen environment.

Today, the methodology would be thought crude. Vitrification, which provides the benefits of cryopreservation without the damage caused by ice crystals, was not introduced until the 1980s. In addition, DMSO is no longer used on its own, and almost certainly damaged Bedford’s brain beyond repair."   http://www.informationsociety.co.uk/cool-dude-james-bedford-has-been-cryonically-frozen-for-50-years/

Hrmzz, that was what I thought. 

Cheers for the link  

[Parsec 1,233]

On 31/1/2017 at 2:45 AM, Four Winds said:

I guess that would depend on the definition, but science is pushing the boundaries. 

“When you are at 10C, with no brain activity, no heartbeat, no blood – everyone would agree that you’re dead,” says Peter Rhee at the University of Arizona, Tucson. “But we can still bring you back.”

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140704-i-bring-the-dead-back-to-life

Is it a threat?