Suspended Animation Inc

Cells in the brain usually remain viable for only 5 to 10 minutes after cardiac arrest, but this period can be greatly prolonged by appropriate medical procedures. Our goal is to intervene after death has been pronounced but before irrevocable damage has occurred. By lowering the body temperature while administering medications and providing cardiopulmonary support, we believe we can protect the patient long enough to introduce an organ preservation solution via extracorporeal bypass. This blood substitute provides further protection while the patient is transported to an operating room where a vitrifying cryoprotective solution is introduced, after which the patient is cooled sufficiently to prevent any subsequent deterioration for the indefinite future.

Our procedures are applied only to patients who have made arrangements for subsequent cryopreservation at cryonics facilities. Suspended Animation itself does not provide cryogenic storage of any kind.


			This scanning electron micrograph shows a section of the cortex at slightly more than 1:1000 magnification, almost undamaged after recovery from vitrification. To enable cryopreservation with this degree of fidelity in human patients, clearly the brain must be protected from injury before cryoprotective perfusion begins. Our goal is to provide this protection by intervening as quickly as possible after cardiac arrest and minimizing the ischemic injury that normally occurs. (Photo courtesy 21st Century Medicine.)

To fulfill our purpose, Suspended Animation maintains an ambitious development program in conjunction with rapid response capability. Our activities include:

n Recruitment and training of medical professionals
n Simulating emergency scenarios
n Refining and maintaining equipment
n Developing new treatment modalities
n Designing and fabricating new equipment and devices
n Expanding our ability to offer remote standby
n Monitoring the health status of our clients
n Intervening after legal death


			On a day-to-day basis, Suspended Animation staff are primarily dedicated to developing and refining new equipment, treatment modalities, and procedures, while maintaining contact with clients and organizing training sessions and emergency simulations, to insure readiness.

			If one of our clients experiences an emergency, or a partner organization requests our assistance, we deploy our equipment as near as possible to the patient and wait for the outcome. If legal death is pronounced, we perform stabilization procedures defined in our protocol. The patient is perfused with organ preservation solution before air-transport to a cryonics organization for vitrification and long-term preservation using liquid nitrogen. By 2007 we expect to offer the option of vitrification at our own location, followed by cooling below –130 degrees Celsius and low-temperature transport to a cryonics facility where long-term preservation will occur as before.