On May 12, an Australian man in his 80s was frozen at -200 degrees Celsius by the Australian company Southern Cryonics. This was done in the hopes of preserving his body for future medical advances that may allow for his resurrection. The cost for this procedure was $170,000, making him the company’s first customer to undergo this process in Australia.
The man, known as “Patient 1”, was immediately moved from the hospital’s cold room to a funeral home after his death. A team of perfusion specialists and doctors worked for 10 hours to stabilize his body using special procedures. The experts used the latest technology, such as an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine, during the stabilization process.
Following the stabilization, the body was then wrapped in a special sleeping bag designed to keep it intact in liquid nitrogen. Patient 1 was cooled to dry ice temperatures and transported to the company’s facility in Holbrook. There, his body was gradually reduced to -200 degrees Celsius in a cold chamber, following strict procedures developed with expert Aaron Drake at the Arizona Medical Science Center.
While this process has raised concerns among scientists about the science and ethics of freezing corpses for potential resurrection, researchers have made strides in reviving cultured cells in the lab. However, fully reviving an entire person remains a challenge that is likely far from becoming a reality, according to experts like Bruce Thompson from the Melbourne School of Health Sciences.