Archives: Case Reports

CI patient #120 is John Bull.  John was in the hospital undergoing medical procedures, which he unfortunately was not able to recover from.  He was 84 years old when he died on January 19^th, 2014.

The patient had contracted with Suspended Animation Inc. (SA) to provide standby, stabilization and transportation.  SA personal was on standby at the hospital when the patient died and they were able to quickly apply their procedures for cooling and stabilization.  The patient was then transported to a local funeral home so that the necessary transit permits could be obtained and flight arrangements could be made for transport.  The first available direct flight to Detroit Metro Airport was scheduled to leave early the following morning and the patient was transported on that flight.

The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in water ice in the very early afternoon on the 20^th of January.  Sara Walsh, one of CIs local cooperating funeral directors, was present for the perfusion of the patient.  Information was provided from SA, to CI, stating that the patient had severe upper and lower GI bleeding.  Therefore, a decision was made to concentrate the perfusion efforts on the patients head and brain.

The perfusion started at about 2:30pm.  During the perfusion there were 2 liters of 10% Eg solution used, 6 liters of 30 % Eg solution used and 20 liters of 70% VM1 solutions used.  The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the right jugular vein was 1.4205.  The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the left jugular vein was 1.4216.  Considerable dehydration of the head and face was noted along with a bronzing color of the skin.  Rehydration of the face was also noted near the end of the perfusion.

The patient was then placed in the computer controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature.  The human vitrification program was selected and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was five and a half.  The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage.

Comments:  The patient was very active in the cryonics movement and he was well known.  He made sure his family knew of his cryonics arrangements and they supported him.  The patient took the time and effort to make arrangements for standby and made sure that his contracts and funding with CI were always in order.  His daughter alerted SA and CI personal when his condition became serious and she kept us up to date of his condition.  All of this led to a good suspension.

The Patients family has asked for confidentiality.

CI patient #122 was an 88 year old male from Florida who was under hospice care and died at home. The patient was a CI member at the time of his death.

The next of kin had contracted with Suspended Animation for Standby, Stabilization and Transport services. The patient died on the afternoon of May 21, 2014. Suspended Animation team members were present when death occurred and followed their protocol for stabilization, cooling and washout. The patient was held at a local funeral home, where cooling was maintained, while they made arrangements to have the patient flown to Detroit Metro Airport on an 8am flight on May 22nd.

The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in water ice at approximately 1:30pm on the 22nd of May. Jim and Sara Walsh, CIs local cooperating funeral directors, were both present for the perfusion and the perfusion began at 2pm. A full body perfusion was performed.

The perfusion was completed at 3:30pm. During the perfusion there were 2.5 liters of 10% Eg solution used, 8 liters of 30 % Eg solution used and 53 liters of 70% VM1 solutions used. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the right jugular vein was 1.4185. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the left jugular vein was 1.4157. Considerable dehydration of the head and face was noted along with a bronzing color of the skin.

The patient was then placed in the computer controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. The human vitrification program was selected and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was five and a half days. The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage.

Comments: The perfusion went well due to the fact that the patient benefited from standby, stabilization, cooling and washout from Suspended Animation.

CI patient #123 was a 71 year old male from England. Due to the uncontrollable circumstances of this case, the patient was straight frozen without being perfused with cryoprotective solutions and was sent to the Cryonics Institute for long-term storage in liquid nitrogen.

CI patient #124 was a 76 year old female who died in a Texas nursing home on July 30th, 2014. The patient was a CI member at the time of her death.

The next of kin had contracted with a local funeral director to provide initial cooling and transport services. The patient died at approximately 9:15pm on July 30th, 2014. The patient was packed in water ice and taken to the local funeral home where she was kept in water ice and refrigeration while flight arrangements were made and a transit permit was obtained.

The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in water ice at approximately 9:50pm on the 31st of July. Jim and Sara Walsh, CIs local cooperating funeral directors, were both present for the perfusion and the perfusion began at 10:25pm. A full body perfusion was attempted. However, edema quickly appeared in the body and the body perfusion was terminated and the perfusion efforts were then focused on the head and brain.

The perfusion was completed at midnight. During the perfusion there were 2 liters of 10% Eg solution used, 5 liters of 30 % Eg solution used and 19 liters of 70% VM1 solutions used. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the right jugular vein was 1.4192. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the left jugular vein was 1.4172. Dehydration of the head and face was noted along with a bronzing color of the skin at the beginning of the perfusion. However, as the perfusion progressed, edema was noted and the perfusion was terminated.

The patient was then placed in the computer controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. The human vitrification program was selected and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was five days and 13 hours. The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage.

CI patient #125 was a 69 year old male who died in a hospital in England after being hospitalized for several weeks. The patient was a CI member at the time of his death.

The patient contracted with Cryonics UK for their standby, perfusion and transportation service. The patient died on August 24th, 2014. Cryonics UK team members applied their protocol and the patient was kept in dry ice until the appropriate documents for transit could be obtained.

The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in dry ice, on September 6th, 2014
The patient was then placed in the computer controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. The human vitrification program was selected and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was five days and 13 hours. The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage.

CI patient #126 was a 91 year old male who died in a New Jersey hospital on September 8th, 2014. The patient was a CI member at the time of his death.

The Cryonics Institute and the patient had arranged ahead of time with a local funeral director to provide the initial cooling and transportation arrangements. The patient died at 8:15am on September 8th, 2014. The patient was packed in water ice and taken to the hospital morgue for further cooling. The funeral director reported that chest compressions were applied in order to help accelerate the cooling process. Heparin was not administered by the hospital due to their policy preventing it, but the patient was receiving high doses of Cumidin while in the hospital.

The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in water ice at approximately 8 pm on the 9th of September. The deep nasal temperature of the patient was 2.6c. Sara Walsh, CIs local cooperating funeral director, and an assistant were both present for the perfusion, along with two CI employees, and the perfusion began at 8:30pm. Very little clotting of the blood was observed. The perfusion was a full body perfusion.

The perfusion was completed at 9:45pm. During the perfusion there were 2 liters of 10% Eg solution used, 6 liters of 30 % Eg solution used and 36 liters of 70% VM1 solutions used. The flow rate during perfusion was steady and averaged 1.37 liters per minute until the very end where it was reduced to .25 liters per minute in order to keep the pressure from rising in the patient. The pressure during perfusion was held at 120mm. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the right jugular vein was 1.415. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the left jugular vein was 1.419. Dehydration of was noted in the head, face and parts of the body along with a bronzing color of the skin where dehydration was present. Near the end of the perfusion there was some edema noted in the face, but no edema was noted in the brain by observation through the burr hole in the skull. The temperature of the nasal thermocouple was -2.4c at the end of the perfusion.

The patient was then cooled to liquid nitrogen temperature. The human vitrification program was selected on the computer controlled cooling unit and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was five and a half days. The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage.

Comments: CI uses less perfusion solutions of lower concentration, and more of the higher concentration when the perfusion is conducted more than 24 hours after the death of the pateint. This helps to reduce edema and allows for more of the cryoprotective solutions to be absorbed into the tissue. The delay in having the patient sent to CI resulted in part because the funeral director did not have a Ziegler shipping case on hand and needed to to obtain one in the morning before shipping could take place. This was not the fault of the funeral director we used because he was actually a backup funeral director that filled in because the original funeral director backed out at the last minute. For those of our members who are relying on a local funeral director to transport them to CI, it would be best to confirm that they do keep a Ziegler shipping case on hand in case of an emergency in order to eliminate possible delays.

“CI received its 127th patient on December 27th, 2014. No details are being provided because of privacy”.