CI Case 164
CI patient #164 was a 58 year old male from Michigan. The patient was a CI member at the time of his death. CI staff met with the patient and his family in the weeks leading up to the cryopreservation of the patient, in order to make sure they were as well prepared as they could possibly be.
The patient died at home under hospice care at 10:30 pm on March 13, 2018. After the patient was pronounced, the family immediately cooled his head with small bags of ice carefully placed around his head. Heparin was injected and chest compressions were performed for five minutes. CI staff arrived at the home and added more ice to the patient to facilitate further cooling. The patient was then quickly transferred to the CI facility.
Upon the patient’s arrival at the CI facility, he was transferred to the operating table in the perfusion room and was immediately covered with more ice. Cold water was circulated over the patient’s head to facilitate further and faster cooling. The nasal temperature upon his arrival was 26.3c, though it quickly came down as the cold water was circulated over his head.
Hillary Martenson performed the perfusion. The perfusion was completed at 2:15am. During the perfusion there were 8 liters of 10% Eg solution and 8 liters of 30% Eg solution used, and 65 liters of 70% VM1 solutions used. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the right jugular vein was 1.4230. The final refractive index of the effluents exiting the left jugular vein was 1.4229. The average perfusion pressure was held at 115mm and metal cannulas were used. Flow rate started at 2.8 liters per minute and was reduced to 0.99 liters per minute by the end of the perfusion. The nasal temperature was -14.5c at the end of the perfusion.
There were no blood clots noted during the perfusion and there was good flow from both of the jugular veins. The entire body was perfused and dehydration and bronzing of the skin was visible through the trunk and on all extremities. Significant dehydration of the head and face was noted along with a bronzing of the skin. No edema or swelling was noted. The perfusion of both the head and body was very successful.
The patient was then transferred to 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 six days and 9 hours. The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage.