23 Year-Old Girl Freezes Head Without Body to Live Forever

frozen into the future what if I told you that there might be a way to time travel all you have to do is wait and chill for a couple of centuries easy right okay it might be a little more complicated than that in my last video I talked about people miraculously surviving after being under ice for extended periods of time in this video we're going to talk about people purposefully freezing themselves through cryonics a fancy word which here means the process of freezing a corpse and storing it until a theoretical time in the future when technology has advanced enough to bring that person back to life looks like I'll need another batch of coffee I get the feeling that part two is going to give me just as many shivers freezing in cryonics or cryogenic freezing is not like putting meat in your freezer at home its low-temperature freezing most chronic Institute's freeze at negative two hundred and four point eight degrees Fahrenheit to put things in perspective your home freezer sits at 32 degrees Fahrenheit you've probably heard of cryonics before in popular culture but you often see it in a negative light in the popular TV show Futurama the main character fry accidentally falls into a cryonics chamber during a prank pizza delivery call in the year 2000 he woke up in 29.99 and realized his family was gone software engineer and former IE ET intern ben skarlatos adjusts the Futurama episode may be indicative of how Kryon assists are sometimes perceived as antisocial and with nothing to live for in the present in the 1962 sci-fi film the brain that wouldn't a young surgeon named dr. bill kortner and his fiancee Jan Compton end up in an accident he survives the Jan's body is destroyed bill decides to keep Jan's severed head alive in an electrified petri dish but he realizes she needs a new body so he settles on glamour model Doris Powell but Jan isn't happy and doesn't want to continue living without her body she even begs bill to let her pass away writer Zoe Cormier who speaks of the film in her article the creepy insane an undeniable romantic world of cryonics raises the question how can we be so sure that living forever would be pleasant even if daily life right now is an utter joy for you how can we be so sure that it would be so fun if you live for several hundred or thousand years there is also the common concern of feeling out of place in the future in the popular Marvel comic Captain America cap is frozen in the Arctic in the 1940s and wakes up in the modern day when he wakes up he realizes that he doesn't get him in one of the comics cap says I'm like a dinosaur in the cro-magnon age an anachronism who's outlived his time anachronism is another fancy word which here means a thing that belongs to another time in the Marvel movies cap reunites with his girlfriend Peggy Carter but sees she's much older now and she eventually passes on before him both the comic and movie suggests that getting a second chance in the future doesn't turn out so nice despite negative representations in popular culture there are many people who are interested in or opt for cryonics for certain reasons some people feel unfulfilled in life because they have a terminal illness that is currently incurable a 14-year old girl that goes by Jay s was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer she wanted to be crowd preserved and said I have been asked to explain why I want this unusual thing done I am only 14 years old and I don't want to pass but I know I'm going to I think being cryopreserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up even in hundreds of years time Jay s past in 2016 and was crowd preserved at the cryonics Institute in Michigan u.s. others want to spend more time with their family Victoria Stevens a member of chronics UK said I enjoy living I love my family and I wouldn't want to say goodbye to them forever I just find living a joy so why would I not want to continue as a member of cryonics UK Victoria signed up to have herself cryopreserved in the future and someone on reddit said I was primarily interested in cryonics for my parents who I want to have with me for the next few centuries as well even famous people like Walt Disney were allegedly interested in being frozen in a 1972 interview Bob Nelson president of the cryonics Society of California told Los Angeles Times Walt Disney wanted to be frozen but Disney never got to the legal paperwork in time Nelson clarified lots of people think of the bodies in cold storage in his basement the truth is Walt missed out he never specified it in writing and when he passed the family didn't go for it they had him cremated I personally have seen his ashes there in Forest Lawn strangely enough even after the interview there was an urban legend that Disney's head was cryopreserved under Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean ride the story must have changed similar to a game of broken telephone it started off with the barters on a cold storage in his basement - Walt Disney is frozen under the Pirates of the Caribbean in reality Disney was cremated [Music] an intern at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in 1966 and you'll find out later why it would be inconvenient to crowd preserve someone under a Disneyland ride cryopreservation has been around for a long time but cryonics on human bodies was first scientifically proposed in the 1960s by a Michigan professor Robert Ettinger in his book the prospect of immortality where he argued the end of life could be reversible he said frozen after D animation whether you passive old age disease or accident you may be revived and rejuvenated by future technology if you make the arrangements right now in 1976 professor Ettinger founded cryonics Institute which provides full-body cryopreservation of humans pets DNA and tissue storage Ettinger passed in 2011 and was placed in a cryo stat a chamber that maintains very low temperatures at chronics Institute in hopes of being revived in the his mother and his first and second wives also reside in the same chamber he froze his first and second wife that'll be one hell of a reunion I hope they're not too cold to one another even though Ettinger was the pioneer of chronics he wasn't the first to open a chronics organization the first person to open a chronics organization was Evan Cooper and he founded the Life Extension Society in 1964 and a year later le s offered to freeze one person free of charge The Life Extension Society now has primitive facilities for emergency short-term freezing and storing our friends a large homeo therm a fancy word which here means a warm-blooded animal Elias offers to freeze free of charge the first person desirous and in need of cryogenic suspension despite the generous offer no one was frozen at the Life Extension Society it wasn't until 1967 the first human James Hyrum Bedford a 73 year old retired psychology professor at the University of California entered cryogenic suspension James Bedford was diagnosed with kidney cancer which to later spread to his lungs this condition was untreatable at the time so Bedford asked to be crowd preserved in hopes there would be a cure in the future Bedford passed away in January 1967 and was frozen in a cryo capsule by cryo Care Equipment Corporation in Phoenix Arizona he was moved several times due to capsule malfunctions before finally securing his place at Alcor Life Extension foundation in 1982 let's fast-forward to the present day the latest update from crafts Institute is from March 2019 there are currently a hundred and seventy four human patients and a hundred and sixty eight pets cryopreserved and over 1,500 people signed up for cryopreservation when they pass yep you heard that right pets too which sounds like a good deal for me I already know my sweet water bear could handle that and guess what small pets are stored in the same chamber as humans ah bina and I can chill together for centuries and Alcor the Institute that currently holds the first frozen man has a report from April 2019 they have a hundred and sixty-eight patients and over 1200 people signed up for Krabbe preservation when they pass so how exactly our patients preserved let's start from the beginning when the patient has clinically passed a team stabilizes circulation with a heart-lung resuscitator and keeps the brain supplied with blood and oxygen next is transporting the body to a cryonics Institute as fast as possible to do so the body must be packed in ice and must be injected with a blood thinning medication next is the freezing stage most people assume the patient is simply put into a big cooler and that's not the case with cryo preserving a human when freezing something normally like in your kitchen freezer ice is formed when water turns to ice it expands so if something made of living cell tissue is frozen the water inside those cells expands and destroys the cells scientist and engineer mark mio tonic freezes and thaws a carrot to show how ice damages cells here's a carrot that carrot is also mostly made of water when you freeze something like this as we all know when you freeze vegetables and then you deep freeze them they're not the same as they went in and lots of us will where that come from because when you freeze something it's mostly water it turns to ice and ice - something weird - the cells to avoid severe tissue damage human bodies must be cooled through a special process called vitrification to vitrify a human body blood is removed and replaced with an antifreeze solution that allows the body to be cool to super low temperatures without any water in the body freezing and damaging cells now the body is put on a bed of dry ice until it cools to negative two hundred and two degrees Fahrenheit and finally the body must be stored in a cryo staff chamber fun fact a chamber at chronics Institute can hold up to six bodies in a tank and a couple large pets the tank is filled with liquid nitrogen at negative 321 degrees Fahrenheit remember Disney and the rumor that his head is frozen under the Pirates of the Caribbean ride well considering that you have to replenish liquid nitrogen weekly it's not very convenient or even accessible if he's underwater at a Disney ride so how much does it cost to be Cryer preserved a chronics Institute rates her twenty-eight thousand to thirty five thousand for a whole body suspension at Alcor life-extension rates are a hundred thousand for whole body and thirty five thousand for neuro suspension neuro suspension is krauser via the head in hopes a new body can be cloned or regenerated in the future it definitely costs less but the weight for that sort of science may be much longer so has chronics worked on anyone yet unfortunately no at least no whole body has been revived from being frozen at liquid nitrogen temperatures however removal of an organ that was frozen later thawed and transplanted was successful but it wasn't from a human it was a rabbit in 2004 cryo biologists and bio gerontologist gregory fay and colleagues published a paper reporting that a travitt survived kidney vitrification so you can see the success of the rabbit kidney case makes people hopeful that one day technology will be advanced enough to bring whole mammals back to life of course some scientists are still skeptical perhaps the biggest worry is the brain survival responsible for our personal identity and memory it's such a complex organ that if damaged can change our lives forever there is some research on brain vitrification from 2014 researchers from Al Khor Life Extension Foundation successfully vitrified a nematode worm without affecting its olfactory senses and long-term memory and surprisingly the nematode worm is very similar to humans according to neurobiology professor dr. Eric Lundqvist they have neurons skin gut muscles and other tissues similar in form function and genetics to those of humans but other experts are not so impressed and raised more concerns about crack preserving humans neuroscience professor at King's College London clive Cohen said irreversible damage is caused during the process of taking the mammalian brain into sub-zero temperatures the wishful thinking engendered by cryogenics companies is irresponsible and biochemist Asst professor at Carleton University in Ottawa 10-story adds even if we are possible to successfully crowd preserve organs each would need to be cooled at a different rate and with a different mixture and concentration of crowd protectants even if you only wanted to preserve the brain it has dozens of different areas which would need to be crap reserved using different protocols in crowd biologist dr. Diane Gao from University of Washington Seattle said even if you manage to limit the damage from cryoprotectants the question remains of how they would be safely removed the body could easily fracture like glass during warming due to thermal stress despite the uncertainty of the future there are still hopeful patients kim Swasey was one of them heyguys piece of pizza rules one thousand here also known as Kim it's not that I'm scared but I I don't want to knowing that I could have done sitting more Kim was diagnosed with a highly aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme and only had 12 to 14 months to live Kim was interested in cryonics before she was diagnosed and studied neuroscience at Truman State University so it came more naturally to her when decide she wanted to be crap preserved but Kim didn't have the funds as a college student and asked redditors to help here's a snippet of her post that's archived on reddit reddit helped me find some piece I'm passing on young I'm 23 I know this is a big thing to ask for and I'm sure many people are doubtful that preservation is plausible with cryonics I'm far from convinced but I would rather take the chance with preservation than rotten the ground or get cremated I think cryopreservation is worth a try even an expensive try no one knows what technology will be available in 50 years yes it takes faith in technology but it takes faith to assume that technology won't be sufficient to reverse these problems someday I've looked at essentially every diet supplement clinical trial and miracle treatment out there this is the last thing I can possibly do to fight for another chance and if it does happen to work it will be incredible many people donated Kim raised 17 thousand and three days and fifty thousand dollars in two weeks I can't say it enough how thankful I am for everybody who's given to me so far I am totally totally shocked by the response that I've had from both my friends my family and the chronic community it's a total shock to me that people that hardly even know me are considering donating something just so that I can have some peace of mind and I I really can't find words to express how thankful I am about that On January 17th 2013 kim Swasey became alcor's 114th patient she underwent a neuro cryopreservation meaning her head and brain were frozen with liquid nitrogen when a scientist states that something is possible he almost certainly is right any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic some scientists are even more hopeful because the first man to be frozen James Bedford was evaluated and deemed intact as I mentioned earlier he was frozen in 1967 15 years later in 1991 Bedford was evaluated by Mike Darwin the president of Alcor life extension Foundation Bedford's body was transported in a sleeping bag and transferred to an open-topped bath of liquid nitrogen to prevent rewarming darwin was in awe and documented his experience in a letter he hopes Bedford will read in the future Darwin wrote I cannot describe the feeling of elation I had when I peeled back the sleeping bag that enclosed you and saw that you appeared intact and well cared for upon evaluation Bedford had skin discoloration on his upper body neck right forearm and right hand redness from the lower jaw to the chest and two puncture marks on the neck still Darwin described Bedford as a well-nourished male who appears younger than his 73 years and considering that Bedford had to be moved several times as newer models of the crowd stat chambers were developed he is in pretty great shape despite the uncertainty of the future and the grim representations in popular culture there are still people who have reason to believe in chronics here's a heartwarming story about the Sandberg's Marta and Helmer Sandberg always enjoyed life but Helmer was diagnosed with a brain tumor and passed in 1994 he wished to be crowd preserved and his body now waits in detroit-based chronics Institute his wife Marta Sandberg said I still miss Helmer I still love him we were together for more than 20 years and they were years of joy and contentment she also wishes to be crowded in the future in hopes they both can be revived together regardless of how optimistic you are in cryogenics I think we can at least appreciate the effort going toward this field of research like every organism were driven by self-preservation but unlike other living things we're the only ones aware of our own lifespan in a way it's natural to push back against nature we've been doing it for thousands of years increasing our own tolerance and ability to survive perhaps one day we'll be we'll push hard enough that we reach the other side living in a world that hardly remembers a century long lifespan until then however these answers may have to be put on ice [Music]

Channel: Brew

Views: 2,278,633

Rating: 4.8961711 out of 5

Keywords: solved mysteries, unsolved, unsolved mysteries, unsolved cases, mystery, unsolved mystery, investigation, investigate, theory, mysteries unsolved, mysteries solved, solved mystery, walt disney, cryonics, unexplained, theories, detective, detectives

Id: XPtl49M4Su0

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Synopticz]

Some notes:

- Gets the price of Alcor wrong. Must have used an old URL. States that whole body is $100,000 and neuro is ~$35,000 (I forget the exact number quoted). Of course, it's higher now: $200,000 for whole body and $80,000 for neuro. There's such a stark contrast between the prices of CI and Alcor that it's almost awkward to discuss them together.

- Curiously, they don't use the word "death" in the video. I wonder if this was a stylistic choice or something to do with optimizing for YouTube's algorithm. It reminds me of Brian Wowk's classic "Death of Death in Cryonics": https://alcor.org/Library/html/deathofdeath.html. (Note that not everyone agrees with Brian. For example, here's Jordan Sparks counter: http://forum.oregoncryo.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=33&sid=86af05e787438f3c79ceba77c0edc2f9)

[u/Cryonics-01]

Actual video of the mobile operating room used in the procedure:

https://youtu.be/qZvntOAt6cc