Pre-suspension services in cryonics
Their importance
Cryonic suspension is a long-term storage procedure that employs very cold temperatures to preserve a person who has been declared legally dead. It is undertaken in the hope that the advancement of medical science will allow revival in the future.
Pre-suspension services are critical in achieving a successful suspension, i.e. one that maximises your chances of future revival. If they are not done well, significant brain damage could occur, and the preservation of your personality and memories could be compromised. Your entire suspension might therefore be put at risk.
The services
STANDBY. Our representatives stand ready to swing into action immediately after the pronouncement of legal death so as to minimise the potential for ischemic injury.
STABILISATION. Your deceased body is then stabilised using cooling procedures and cardio-pulmonary support for the brain. An experienced practitioner then performs a perfusion with cryoprotectant chemicals and further cooling.
TRANSPORTATION. You are then transported to your chosen cryonic storage facility with minimal delay, while the required narrow range of temperature is maintained with dry ice, regardless of the distance to be travelled.
Our innovations
In Australia, the biggest problems in optimising a cryonic suspension have always involved remoteness of the patient: both from suitable perfusion expertise and from the cryonic storage facility. This can apply if the facility is overseas, or even if it is local. Large distances have traditionally meant higher risk because of the delay in achieving stabilisation and the difficulty in maintaining it. At CryoPath, we believe that we have innovative solutions to significantly reduce this risk.
Wide coverage across Australia
Working with a dedicated medical perfusion provider, who has portable capabilities, CryoPath can provide cryonic pre-suspension services across Australia.
Reduction of USA distance risk
Previously, patient transportation to USA involved high risk because the required temperature could not be maintained for the long duration of the trip (over 20 hours). Based on results from Cryonics UK, we know that the required temperature can be successfully maintained for a trip of 10-12 hours. So the CryoPath patient makes a stop-over in Hawaii, which is a trip of about the same duration. In Hawaii, our funeral director replenishes the dry ice in the customised insulated container, before sending it on to mainland USA.
This split journey of 2 x 11 hours (approx.) substantially reduces the risk of excessive temperature variation during transportation of patients from Australia.
Modern vitrification capability
Because our Hawaiian solution allows the patient’s temperature to be maintained steadily at dry ice levels, we can now offer in Australia the more modern perfusion method, vitrification, despite its temperature sensitivity.
We can take advantage of the much lower risk profile that vitrification has when compared with older methods used in cryonics.
