One of the greatest achievements of privately funded research at Cryovita Laboratories in the mid-1980s was the development of an organ preservation solution which has become known as MHP2. Variants of this solution were used as a blood substitute in a series of experiments at Cryovita in which dogs were resuscitated successfully after as long as four hours of deep bloodless hypothermia.

In cryonics cases where legal death occurs at some distance from a cryonics facility, Suspended Animation will typically replace the blood with MHP2 before transporting the patient in a sealed container packed with bags of water ice. We believe that MHP2 significantly delays the processes of post-ischemic injury that would normally ensue, but the time limit for transport may vary from case to case. No one really knows how much brain injury occurs under different circumstances, or how much should be considered tolerable. Research has begun to evaluate possible replacements for MHP2, but we do not expect conclusive results in the near future.

Since all chemical reactions take place more slowly at lower temperatures, a patient would be better protected if transport could be performed below the freezing point of water. Currently this is not possible because MHP2 is not a cryoprotectant; it provides no protection from injury associated with freezing. If we could perfuse a patient with cryoprotectant in a remote location, we might then be able to provide transport around –135 degrees Celsius, which would greatly reduce the risk of cell damage during this phase of the procedure.

Implementing our ideal protocol will require us to overcome three very significant challenges.

First, properly monitored and controlled perfusion to achieve vitrification must be performed outside of an operating room or laboratory. This has never been done before.

Second, rapid cooling to around –135 Celsius must begin immediately and must continue without interruption, to reduce the toxicity of the vitrification solution. Liquid nitrogen vapor has been the preferred method to achieve such cooling. This has never been done outside of a cryonics facility or laboratory.

Third, a specially designed container must be locally available to maintain the patient at the low temperature, within very strict limits, while transport ensues. Such a container currently does not exist.

Initially SA envisages performing vitrification procedures only at its own facility, followed by rapid cooling at our facility, and low-temperature ground transport to the patient’s cryonics organization. This scenario will be appropriate in cases where we believe the patient can reach our facility for vitrification at least as quickly as she or he may be able to reach an affiliated cryonics organization for similar procedures. Also, of course, prior financial and legal arrangements will be necessary, authorizing us to intervene.

We will require an operating room equipped for perfusion with vitrification solution; a rapid cooling enclosure to take the patient to the glass transition point; and a transport container and suitable vehicle. When we have acquired experience with our equipment, we will be better able to adapt it for remote capability. We believe our larger vehicle will be sufficient to enable perfusion with vitrification solution, but a separate vehicle will be necessary for the heavy-duty work of moving a rapid cooling enclosure and a transport container to the patient’s location.

We have begun by tackling the simplest objective: Design and construction of a rapid cooling enclosure. We visited the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, where Ben Best and Andy Zawacki were generous with their time, showing us their equipment and control software. We also conferred with Brian Wowk, a biophysicist who codeveloped the X-1000 ice blocker and has extensive experience designing devices for maintenance of cryopreserved organs.

Dr. Wowk emphasized the basic fact that to avoid the risk of overcooling a cryonics patient, the temperature just below the skin, during the entire cooling operation, must not fall significantly below the glass transition point of the vitrification solution with which the patient has been perfused. In simple terms, solidification must not occur prematurely, rapidly, or partially.

The cooling process relies on conduction of heat through the body, from the hottest area, at the core, to the coldest area, at the surface. To insure that this occurs rapidly, cold vapor must be circulated energetically around the patient, disrupting the boundary layer of relatively warm air that tends to remain close to the skin and transporting heat away from the body as efficiently as possible.

Our initial design features two fans blowing air directly down onto the patient, with pipes supplying liquid nitrogen at either side, perforated to introduce nitrogen into the air stream. The nitrogen absorbs heat as it undergoes a transition from liquid to gas, and the air recirculates through an overhead duct before being blown down over the patient again. Excess gas volume is vented through an outlet at the bottom of the enclosure.

The patient will rest on a tray that slides into the enclosure and is supported only along its edges, allowing space for air circulation beneath it as well as above it. The tray is fabricated from 1/4" aluminum to conduct heat from the contact area under the patient’s body.

The initial version of the cooling enclosure includes a hinged lid for ease of access during construction and modification. During use of the box this lid will remain closed, and will be eliminated from future versions. The patient on the tray will enter the enclosure through a removable end piece, and when the cooling process is complete we envisage positioning a transport container end-to-end with the rapid cooling enclosure, allowing the tray to slide directly out of one and into the other. We believe this will minimize the transfer time and the associated risk of exposing a patient to ambient air temperature.