International Cryomedicine Experts (ICE ) Standby & Transport Services

International Cryomedicine Experts (ICE) now formally provides services for Cryonics Institute clients, who live both in the US and around the world.

The old standard of Standby, Stabilization & Transport (SST) has now expanded to include Surgery & Perfusion (+SP) prior to transport to address the growing complexities of having a patient arrive at their Cryonics Service Provider within the very small window of opportunity for perfusion. Over the years, the time requirement for a patient to arrive at their CSO has been reduced from 72 hours to now as little as 24 hours, following clinical death. This becomes very difficult to achieve depending on the location of the patient, the circumstances surrounding their clinical death, and maintaining compliance with local regulations that govern issuing death certificates and transport permits, all before interstate or international transport can commence.

To overcome these logistical challenges, ICE can now provide the surgery and perfusion services with cryoprotectant solutions, at the patient’s location, rather than waiting for regulatory approval and lengthy transport that wastes precious time before the CSO can even attempt these same procedures. This new intervention can significantly improve the entire cryoprotective process by protecting the cells at a much earlier stage. The old phrase often used by doctors, “Time Is Tissue,” means the longer you wait for treatment, the more damage that will occur and the less likely are the chances for recovery. This phrase could not be more relevant than in the science of cryopreservation.

What should you expect during SST+PC? ICE will work with their network of specialists to plan every component of your cryopreservation. A medical team will perform a standby including reviewing medical charts and speaking with physicians to help determine how long the patient may have before clinical death. Stabilization will commence after legal pronouncement and is followed by surgery and perfusion using cryoprotective fluids to protect the cells of the body during transportation to your Cryonics Service Organization.

It should come as no surprise that with all of these actions, the costs of SST+SP can be more expensive than the long-term storage component provided by the CSO. When you factor in the costs of sending an experienced medical/surgical team to a remote location, along with all of the equipment and perfusate needed to successfully cryoprotect a body, before cooling with dry ice and constructing specialized, air-transportable, dry ice shippers that optimize the profound hypothermic environment needed during transport. However, to accommodate a wide variety of budgets, ICE oJers services that range from as little as $15,000 for consulting services, to more than $100,000 for complex whole-body field cryoprotection with international, dry ice shipping requirements needed.

Collectively, ICE team members have participated in more than 150 cryopreservations for CI, Alcor and Yinfeng. Ice is based in Phoenix Arizona with Aaron Drake and Eric Vogt, however they also have team paramedics located in California, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Alaska and Hawaii. You can find more information about ICE’s services and prices on CI’s website, or

at www.cryomedics.org.