The fear of disappearing without a trace has tormented people for many thousands of years. Each of us at least once thought about what kind of epitaph will be written on the tombstone, and what good friends will remember at the commemoration. I thought about it - and was scared of my own thoughts. This time we will learn how corpses are frozen in the hope that in the future they can be revived
Cryonics is a technology for freezing people who have just died and storing bodies or parts of them in liquid nitrogen. Its adepts hope that in the future there will be ways to revive the dead. In Russia, bodies are frozen by the KrioRus company, which began work in 2005. Now the bodies of 40 people and 15 animals are stored in its cryostorage.
Its specialists themselves have developed and launched into production dewars for frozen corpses "Anabiosis-1" and "Anabioz-2". The CEO of the company Valeria Pride and the chairman of the board of directors Danila Medvedev spoke about how the freezing takes place, how much it costs and what kind of people apply for this service.
How cryonics appeared in Russia
In 2003, the first cryopatient of KrioRus died - a biotechnologist from Pushchino. They saved his brain, did all the procedures, everything went quietly, without PR. In September 2005, a man from St. Petersburg decided to cryopreserve his grandmother and turned to the Cryonics Institute in America. They replied that they did not work with Russia, and advised him to contact Danila Medvedev, who translated a book on cryonics. He cryopreserved this woman.
At the same time, we created the Russian Transhumanist Movement and at the beginning of 2005 held a seminar where we talked about different technologies for human recovery, organ growing, brain modeling - then several people appeared who expressed their desire to cryonize themselves.
Promotional video:
In 2006, we registered an LLC and found a small room in Alabushevo near Moscow: we were given a room in the wing of the old school. All eight co-founders were enthusiastic. We did it for ourselves: I sincerely believe that cryonics is a chance for salvation. Then we thought: what if someone else needs it? They gave a press release and woke up famous.
People began to contact us almost immediately
The co-founders invested money at the start: they invested 19 thousand dollars in total, and then we used the money of the first clients for development. We developed rather slowly because we failed to attract investment. Businessmen do not know how to think about the eternal and beautiful, they want to invest and get money, but we do not have businessmen among cryonicists.
In America cryonicists themselves have become very high-level businessmen. For example, the Life Extension Foundation was created to sell cryonics supplements. They now have a capitalization of about $ 400 million, due to which their business is growing rapidly.
Clients and rates
The people who come to us are completely different, from different countries and cultures. They are open to new things, know the technology and understand why this is possible. Once a cryopatient from the Baltic was brought to us - the initiator in that case was a schoolboy of 14 years old, he turned out to be the most advanced in the family, found information and convinced all relatives. Clients include Orthodox Christians, atheists and one Buddhist. We were approached by a guy from Egypt who created a website for Egyptian transhumanists.
One of the first clients wanted to make a dummy of her deceased brother in a crystal coffin, like in the films, although this is technologically impossible even now: you cannot make a transparent dewar. In addition, we did not know how to restore people who had been in the grave for six months.
Then we were approached by a businessman whose wife died after cancer. Our company was small and modest, he did not want to work with us, but we made a dewar for him. True, after some time he returned it to us: perhaps he found another option, sent his wife to America - we do not know.
In general, half of those who apply are cancer patients. Some of them refuse to give up even when everyone has surrendered and medicine is powerless. Cryonics for them is the last chance: maybe in a hundred or a thousand years they will be revived and cured.
Preservation of the brain costs 12 thousand dollars, the body and head - 36 thousand dollars, the preservation of an animal (depending on the size) - 12-15 thousand dollars. We do not believe that animals should be cheaper than people: they require the same costs. It is interesting that the Russians bring us mainly cats, foreigners - dogs.
We have insurance for young people who are already thinking about cryonics, but so far they have little money, and everything is far away for them. We give an installment plan: a person pays 18 thousand rubles a month - this is a rather large amount, but many can already afford it. One client rode a bicycle in France, fell, then woke up in a hospital bed with prostheses and fractures, after which he seriously thought about his life and, first of all, returning to Moscow, concluded an agreement with us.
From books and films in the genre of science fiction, people have already developed their own idea of how a cryostorage should look like. Clients wondered why we were in some kind of hangar, asked: "Where is the crystal coffin, and where is the high-tech?" And in parallel with the search for the most reliable technical solutions, we had to think about what impression the cryostorage would make.
Cryoprotectant solution protects tissue from damage during freezing
Equipment
At first we thought that it was enough to store only the brain - for this we need a metal container called a bixa. But it turned out that many people want to preserve the whole body. From the point of view of restoration in the future, this is meaningless, because human organs are already being grown. One Italian group of scientists is developing a method for transferring the brain from one body to another.
The photo shows an example of processing on a mannequin
In general, it will be possible to deal with the body; the main thing is to save the brain. But many people really want to save their body. It is stored in cryostats. This is such a box, inside it is metal, outside it is covered with zinc sheets and insulation. The body can be covered with dry ice: then the temperature reaches minus 80. But we store the bodies in dewars, at minus 196 degrees in liquid nitrogen. American studies have shown that for five years at minus 80, you can see some changes in the frozen body, and at minus 196, the molecules do not enter into any reactions.
Dewars are manufactured for the chemical industry: they store liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen. We decided not to order them from the Americans, because then we will constantly depend on them. We hired people, held a huge number of consultations. We had American detailed drawings, which, by the way, the Americans gave us absolutely free.
As a result, we have two people fully mastered the technology and became experts in this matter.
We made our first Dewar for almost a year, launched it in 2010 and named it "Anabiosis-1". We used composite materials for its construction. A good composite is eight times stronger than steel, cheaper and easier to repair. Therefore, we decided: even if it is not as beautiful as metal, but much more reliable. You can keep a patient in it for a day, if the dewar breaks, in a metal one - two hours.
Then we found a factory that makes yachts and ships - they started making dewars. Now we need to open a good cryostorage. We have already moved from the old school in Alabushev to Sergiev Posad, but now we are looking for a large room for the next cryostorage.
Procedure
The cryopreservation procedure is rather complicated. This applies to both the cooling process of the patient and the introduction of cryoprotectants into the body (solutions that prevent the formation of ice in the cells, due to which cells are less damaged during freezing).
The preliminary stage is the preparation of solutions. There is a ready-made concentrate, from which you can make the necessary 32 liters of solution for the head. When all the solutions are ready, they undergo a very complex vacuum sterilization procedure using filters. There are not very many cryopatients - we need to use solutions several times a year. Then they freeze. When the cryopatient appears, everything is thawed and the procedure begins.
The first thing that is done after death is cooling the body down to zero degrees. If death was expected and the client contacted in advance, he is advised to prepare ice packs. In a dead person, all those processes that are responsible for maintaining life stop working, and the destruction of the body begins. With the help of chemical coolers or ice, these processes must be stopped immediately.
Then you need to provide surgical access to the circulatory system: this is done either by a surgeon, or by a pathologist, or by a KrioRus specialist (depending on where the person is). To do this, you need to gain access to the carotid artery and jugular vein - this is done in the same way as during a therapeutic operation. Then the perfusion system can be connected.
We insert special tubes, cannulas into veins and arteries, we begin to remove blood and pump the solution. For control, a refractometer is used, which measures the refractive index of the liquid. If it can be seen that a solution of high concentration (60%) entering the body and at the exit it is almost the same, it means that the required degree of saturation has already been reached - the procedure can be completed. The blood must be completely replaced with solutions, because if it remains, then all the processes of change are accelerated.
The operation sometimes takes four hours. Six people work on the cryopatient, including two surgeons and assistants: someone must monitor the temperature of the place and the whole body. We have only three cryobiologists throughout the country - those who deeply study this area and can develop it. And simply cryopreservation of the body can be trained by any young man from those who studied to be a surgeon, pathologist.
Nose thermocouples monitor brain temperature
Interaction with doctors
We worked with different hospitals and were almost always able to organize the work normally. But if the appeal is sudden, then we need to go to a new place to new people and explain to them from scratch what cryonics is. Although now the situation is getting better, and earlier it was necessary to get to the head doctor.
Ideally, the hospital is required to take over the entire initial phase, but they are not yet ready for this.
Ideally, this procedure could be carried out by doctors directly in the intensive care unit. If a person cannot be helped, then they write out a medical certificate of death and transfer him to the next room, where they cool and replace the blood with a cryoprotectant solution. And then we will take our time to pick up the patient in our car, pick it up and be responsible only for long-term storage.
We expect that China will become a large testing ground for us, where we will work on the basis of large hospitals and will have constant access to specialists of the highest level who are ready to work together with cryobanks, with a cryonics firm, in order to introduce into practice the cooperation of cryonicists with the hospital.
After that, the Chinese experience will be transferred back to Russia and America. Because in America this organizational moment was also not managed, they are forced to do everything independently at all stages.