A cryonics company has frozen its first client in Australia in the hope of bringing him back to life in the future. According to ABC News Australia, Southern Cryonics, which operates the Southern Hemisphere's first known cryonics facility, announced that it has cryogenically frozen its first client at its Holbrook facility. The client, a man in his 80s, died in Sydney before being frozen at minus 200 degrees Celsius. He has become what the company refers to as 'Patient One'.
"(It was) very stressful," Southern Cryonics' facility manager Philip Rhoades said, as per the outlet. "That was what was keeping me awake for a week because there are a number of different procedures to go through for different days, and there were a number of situations that might have gone wrong if we hadn't prepared properly," he added.
Mr Rhoades said even though his firm has been ready and preparing to accept bodies from this year, their first client was slightly unexpected. "There were a couple of other people who were existing members who we thought might be likely candidates for being the first but, as it turned out, it was someone who wasn't an existing member," Mr Rhoades said.
"His family rang up out of the blue and we had about a week to prepare and get organised," the manager stated. He explained that his team then tested all the cryonics equipment and were mostly prepared. "But it's still a little bit different when you are doing a real case," he said.
According to ABC News, 'Patient One' died on May 12 at a hospital in Sydney. The 10-hour process of preserving his body in the hope of bringing it back to life then began immediately. The man's body was moved into the hospital's cold room and packed in ice to bring it down to around 6 degrees Celsius. Doctors then pumped a liquid, which acts as a type of anti-freeze, through the body to help preserve cells and lower the body's temperature.
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The patient was then wrapped in a special type of sleeping bag and packed in dry ice. His body temperature was brought down to around minus 80 degrees Celsius, and he was transferred to Southern Cryonics' Holbrook facility the next day, where he remained on dry ice until a delivery of liquid nitrogen arrived. The man's temperature was then reduced further to minus 200 degrees Celsius before being deposited in a special tank that serves as a vacuum storage pod.
The whole process cost the client $170,000 with additional fees for medical teams to help with the preservation process, the outlet reported. This 10-hour process is designed to increase the likelihood of the person being resurrected, the company said.
Notably, the Holbrook facility currently holds one dewar that fits four bodies. The Holbrook site can fit up to 40 bodies with the possibility for expansion, which the company believes could soon be needed.
