Teenager cancer victim becomes the first British child to be cryogenically frozen

Landmark ruling: Mr Justice Peter Jackson has agreed a British child who died of cancer could become the first British child to be cryogenically frozen 

The father of a 14-year-old girl who is the first British child to be cryogenically frozen fears she could be woken in '200 years' all alone in America, with no memory and no family.

The teenager, who cannot be named, died last month and is now in a 'cryostat' tank at around -196C (-321F) inside the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute, it can be reported for the first time today. 

She was at the centre of a fierce legal battle between her divorced parents - with her mother agreeing to her wish to be frozen while her estranged father, who is also battling cancer, refused because of its £37,000 cost and the brutal process of preserving her.

He told the High Court: 'Even if the treatment is successful and she is brought back to life in, let's say, 200 years, she may not find any relative and she might not remember things.

'She may be left in a desperate situation - given that she is still only 14-years-old - and will be in the United States of America.'

Mr Justice Peter Jackson was called a 'hero' by the child before she died after he agreed to her dying wish so that one day she could 'be cured and woken up'. 

The judge also revealed her father was also persuaded in the end and said: 'I respect the decisions she is making. This is the last and only thing she has asked from me.'

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Landmark case: The girl has been frozen at become the first British child to be cryogenically frozen and in the Cryonics Institute in Detroit - she is now in one of these storage tanks 

Plea: The teenage girl wrote a moving letter to the High Court explaining the reasons why she wanted to be cryogenically frozen 

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During the landmark case she wrote an extraordinary letter to a judge while on her death bed.

She said: 'I am only 14-years-old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die.

'I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up. I want to have this chance. This is my wish.' 

'I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time. I don't want to be buried underground'. 

'I AM ONLY 14 AND I DON'[T WANT TO DIE BUT I KNOW I AM GOING TO': DYING GIRL'S INCREDIBLE LETTER BEGGING TO BE FROZEN

The British girl now frozen in America met the judge to prove she was capable of making decisions about her body and wrote him a letter explaining her reasons. 

Mr Justice Jackson said: 'I am only 14-years-old and I don't want to die but I know I am going to die.

'I think being cryo-preserved gives me a chance to be cured and woken up - even in hundreds of years' time. I don't want to be buried underground.

'I want to live and live longer and I think that in the future they may find a cure for my cancer and wake me up.

'I want to have this chance. This is my wish.' 

Justice Jackson said that she died peacefully knowing she would be frozen and discussed the arrangements before on the day she died. 

She had asked the High Court to rule that her mother should be the only person allowed to make decisions about the disposal of her body. 

After agreeing, High Court judge Mr Justice Jackson, who visited the girl's bedside shortly before her death on October 17, said the terminally ill she died peacefully knowing that her remains would be frozen.

The judge said he had been moved by the 'valiant way' in which she had faced her 'predicament'. 

Today the girl's solicitor, Zoe Fleetwood, said the teenager described Mr Justice Jackson as her 'hero' after being informed of the court's decision days before her death.

Ms Fleetwood told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'By October 6, the girl knew that her wishes were going to be followed. That gave her great comfort. Very sadly she died on October 17. She had those last few days knowing that her wish was granted.'

She added: 'It was a great privilege to represent her. She had extraordinary determination.

'When the decision was communicated to her on October 6, she was very pleased. She was delighted and she wanted to see the judge. The judge did go and see her the very next day. She communicated to me after the meeting and she referred to the judge as Mr 'Hero' Peter Jackson.' 

Her body has been flown to America and she has since slowly been chilled over two to three weeks in Liquid Nitrogen and stored next to around 150 other bodies.

She is in one of America's two main cryo-facilities - the Cryonics Institute near Detroit - where its founder Robert Ettinger was frozen with two of his wives when he died aged 92.

Around 250 people have spent huge sums cryo-preserving their bodies - the first was Dr James Bedford in 1967 - and it has been a popular theme in movies such as Forever Young starring Mel Gibson.

Thousands more have paid up to £150,000 to do the same when they die.

A device called a 'heart-lung resuscitator' is used to get the blood pumping through the body again, when required, and medication is applied to the body to prevent the cells from deteriorating. 

Blood and bodily fluids are drained, then they are replaced with a solution like antifreeze.

But the process is hugely controversial, especially with scientists and doctors, because it has never been possible to successfully revive a human or any mammal frozen in this way. 

The girl's body is now suspended in freezing nitrogen at Michigan's Cryonics Institute near Detroit. Pictured is one of the areas where here body would be packed in ice and prepared for freezing

Process: Bodies are drained of blood  on a table packed with ice(left) and then frozen slowly over several weeks before reaching -196˚ C and being kept in a regulated cylinder (right)

WHAT IS CRYOPRESERVATION, HOW MUCH DOES IT COST AND HOW DOES IT WORK?  

Process: The girl will have been treated within minutes of death - flown to America and then slowly frozen to an ultra-low temperature in the hope, one day, she'll be woken up again

WHAT IS CRYOPRESERVATION?

The deep freezing of a body to - 196C (-321F). Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged. The hope is that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life. Two main US organisations carry out 'cryonics' – Alcor, in Arizona, and Cryonics Institute, Michigan.

HOW IS IT MEANT TO WORK?

The process can only take place once the body is legally dead. Ideally, it begins within two minutes of the heart stopping – and no more than 15. The body must be packed in ice and injected with chemicals to reduce blood clotting. At the cryonics facility, it is cooled to just above OC and the blood is replaced with a solution to preserve organs. The body is injected with another solution to stop ice crystals forming in organs and tissues, then cooled to - 130C. The final step is to place the body into a container which is lowered into a tank of liquid nitrogen at - 196C.

WHAT'S THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS?

Many experts say there is none. Organs such as the heart and kidneys have never been successfully frozen and thawed, so it is even less likely a whole body – and the brain – could be without irreversible damage.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Charges at the Cryonics Institute, where the girl has been stored, start at around $35,000 (£28,000) to 'members' for whole-body cryopreservation. The girl was charged £37,000, which may include costs such as transportation. Rival group Alcor charges $200,000 (£161,000) for whole-body preservation.

HOW LONG BEFORE PEOPLE CAN BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE?

Cryonics organisations claim it could be decades or even centuries. However Medical experts say once cells are damaged during freezing and turned to 'mush' they cannot be converted back to living tissue, any more than you can turn a scrambled egg back into a raw egg. 

The freezing process was carried out 'quite swiftly' after the teenager's death, said Ms Fleetwood.

She added: 'It was a difficult process. Some might say the girl's mother's attention was directed towards that procedure rather than grieving at that time.

GIRL IS STORED AT CRYONICS CENTRE SET UP BY LOVER OF SCIENCE FICTION

Landmark case: The girl has been frozen at become the first British child to be cryogenically frozen and in the Cryonics Institute in Detroit

The British girl is in one of America's two main cryo-facilities - the Cryonics Institute near Detroit - where its founder Robert Ettinger was frozen with two of his wives when he died aged 92.  

The former American physics teacher called Robert Ettinger, inspired by early science fiction writers, began the cryonics movement by writing a highly controversial book, The Prospect Of Immortality, which predicted that death might be reversible.

The 1964 thesis sparked such acclaim and outrage that the U.S. authorities feared thousands would opt to be frozen in time - and when he died he chose to do it himself, as did his family.  

Packed in dry ice, the British girl arrived at The Cryonics Institute, based in Clinton Township, Michigan.

There she was placed in a 'cryostat' – a cold storage chamber.

Her arrival at the institute, based in the outskirts of Detroit, may have been held up by paperwork issues, as it took eight days to get her to the US.

The case notes detailed the arrival of 'patient 143…a 14-year-old female from London.'

'But her daughter had passed away. The procedure needed to be carried out. One can't imagine what this parent was going through at this time from the loss of her daughter. But parents' attention can be directed elsewhere with various arrangements after a person's death.'

Ms Fleetwood said the case came to court for the first time on September 26 and was swiftly dealt with in little over a week in 'an extraordinary process very sensitively carried out with respect to the family who are grieving at this time'.

The case did not create a precedent with regard to the right to be frozen in the hope of future reawakening, said the solicitor.

'The case was not about the rights and wrongs of cryo-preservation,' she said. 'In accordance with the children's case which go before the courts, this case is about the child's welfare and her wishes being followed.' 

Some, like the British girl, have their entire bodies frozen, but others only have their heads and brains preserved.

The Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona and the Michigan-based Cryonics Institute are the world's leading centres. 

There is also a large body freezing facility it Russia. 

Before she died of a rare and aggressive cancer, the British girl's mother raised£37,000 she needed for the 'freezing of the body in perpetuity', the High Court heard.

But because she is a child it required the consent of both her parents and her father, who had not seen her for eight years, refused. 

He had been concerned about consequences of his daughter being cryogenically preserved, and had been concerned about the costs involved.  

Mr Justice Jackson said he had made decisions relating to a dispute between parents - not about the rights and wrongs of cryogenic preservation. 

But he has suggested that ministers might consider 'proper regulation' of cryonic preservation and revealed that the management of the London hospital she died in had misgivings about her wish.

The girl, who lived in the London area with her mother and had a rare form of cancer diagnosed in August 2015, had to take legal action to be frozen. 

After a year of cancer treatment, this was stopped, before she died friends said she was much-loved, 'caring' and 'bubbly' teenager.

Robert Ettinger, 92, has been frozen in the Cryonics Institute he founded after his death alongside two of his wives

It is unclear what kind of post-mortem procedures were performed. Practitioners are known to cover the head with bags of ice to chill the brain. Blood is drained and replaced with antifreeze.

JUDGE RULED GIRL'S CASE WAS EXTREME VERSION OF FREEZING SPERM OR EGGS

High Court judge Mr Justice Peter Jackson said that the scientific theory underlying cryonics was controversial and admitted many health professionals 'feel deep unease about it.'

He said cryopreservation, the preservation of cells and tissues by freezing, was a well-known process. But he said cryonics was cryopreservation taken to its extreme.

'The scientific theory underlying cryonics is speculative and controversial, and there is considerable debate about its ethical implications,' said Mr Justice Jackson in his ruling.

'On the other hand, cryopreservation, the preservation of cells and tissues by freezing, is now a well-known process in certain branches of medicine, for example the preservation of sperm and embryos as part of fertility treatment.

'Cryonics is cryopreservation taken to its extreme.'

Mr Justice Jackson said the girl had died peacefully knowing that her remains would be frozen.

But he said there had been problems on the day she died, and hospital bosses had expressed misgivings.

He suggested that ministers might consider 'proper regulation' of cryonic preservation.

'I received a detailed note from the solicitors for the hospital trust in which the events surrounding (the girl's) death are described from the point of view of the hospital,' said Mr Justice Jackson, in a postscript to his ruling.

'It records that (she) died peacefully in the knowledge that her body would be preserved in the way she wished.

'However, the note makes unhappy reading in other ways.

'The trust expresses very real misgivings about what occurred on the day of (her) death.'

The judge added: 'On (her) last day, her mother is said to have been preoccupied with the post-mortem arrangements at the expense of being fully available to (her).

'The voluntary organisation is said to have been under-equipped and disorganised, resulting in pressure being placed on the hospital to allow procedures that had not been agreed.

'Although the preparation of (her) body for cryogenic preservation was completed, the way in which the process was handled caused real concern to the medical and mortuary staff.'

And he went on: 'It may be thought that the events in this case suggest the need for proper regulation of cryonic preservation in this country if it is to happen in future.'

Some patients opt for a cheaper 'head-only' option. The procedure, though deeply controversial, is apparently legal and entirely unregulated.

Mr Justice Jackson admitted: 'I have received information about procedures performed on the body after death that would be disturbing to many people.'

Remembered by classmates as a 'bubbly' and 'caring' girl who loved to laugh, the teenager – who cannot be named for legal reasons –had written a letter to the court saying how she did not want to be 'buried underground'. She said cryo-preservation gave her the chance to be cured and woken – 'even in hundreds of years' time'.

The girl's body is now suspended in freezing nitrogen at Michigan's Cryonics Institute near Detroit.

Case notes tell how her body, packed in dry ice, arrived at the facility in Flint in October, eight days after her death before being placed in a 'cryostat' – a cold storage chamber. Dry ice has a temperature of -78C(-108F).

Liquid nitrogen is much colder at -196C (-321F). Two further bodies have arrived since. 'Patient 144' was a 56-year-old whose body arrived by private jet, and Patient 145 was a 78-year-old who was frozen within two hours of dying.

Cryonics UK, the not-for-profit group which dispatched the body to the USA, is led by Tim Gibson, a 45-year-old landlord who trains his members how to prepare bodies for freezing. His group is not subject to regulation by the Human Tissue Authority. He once said: 'These days, no one blinks an eyelid. Not long ago, they saw us as cranks.'

Martin Ingvar, a cognitive neuroscientist at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said the cryogenic process was bound to fail and accused its practitioners of charlatanism.

'When you look at the brain, with 100 billion cells and 10,000 links between these and other cells... there's no way in hell you can restore the function in that,' he said.

Cryonics UK said protocols were carried out with the permission of the hospital but some senior staff 'appeared to be on the back foot'.

Tim Gibson, who runs the team, said his volunteers gave the 14-year-old the best chance of success. 

Mr Justice Jackson said they had put pressure on hospital staff and were disorganised. 

He said: 'The little girl who has just been preserved wouldn't have been preserved without us. It was too difficult.

'Without us, the best she could have hoped for would be relying on a funeral director to pack her in dry ice and send her to America.'

Members, who can pay up to £28,000 for the standby service, are asked to give the team notice so it can arrive 12 to 24 hours before they are legally pronounced dead.

He signed up to be frozen when he was 20 and said today: 'I'm perfectly willing to take the risk with almost a zero possibility chance of success because it's a better chance than being buried.' 

Mr Gibson, who was trained by the Alcor cryonics preservation service in Arizona, said medical training is not necessary but volunteers need a certain amount of knowledge.

He said: 'Initially, I was trained by Alcor in the US, the rest of it just came from practical experience

'You end up teaching parts of it to newcomers, that really hones your knowledge, you realise what you're missing from your skill-set, you just pick stuff up.' 

It said in a statement: 'This may have been because they had not encountered a cryopreservation before, due to the involvement of the court or because the patient was a minor'.

Hospital chiefs failed to respond to requests for comment.

Mr Justice Jackson has asked the Human Tissue Authority to view case files and investigate the issue. A spokesman for the authority said it was now gathering information on any risks posed by cryopreservation and the possible need for regulation.  

HOW GIRL, 14, IS PATIENT 143 IN DETROIT CRYOGENICS CENTRE - BUT WAS HER BODY HELD UP BY PAPERWORK?

Robert Ettinger, 92, pictured in the 1960s, has been frozen in the Cryonics Institute he founded after his death

By Colin Fernandez, Science Correspondent

On the website of the organisation freezing her body, she was simply described as 'patient 143'.

Case notes that read like science fiction detail how, packed in dry ice, she arrived at The Cryonics Institute, based in Clinton Township, Michigan.

There she was placed in a 'cryostat' – a cold storage chamber.

Her arrival at the institute, based in the outskirts of Detroit, may have been held up by paperwork issues, as it took eight days to get her to the US.

The case notes detailed the arrival of 'patient 143…a 14-year-old female from London.'

The significance of the number 143 is the number of human bodies held at the facility. The notes said the girl's family had contracted Cryonics UK to 'provide standby, cooling and transportation of the patient'. The UK group also carried out perfusion – the injection of 'anti-freeze' compounds in the body to stop ice forming.

It said a 'case report' from Cryonics UK will be made available when it is received.

It took eight days for the body to arrive in the US – a delay that may have been caused 'while the necessary paperwork was obtained for transportation'.

The report said: 'The patient arrived at the CI facility, packed in dry ice, at 5:00pm on the 25th of October, approximately 8 days after death.

'The patient was then placed in the computer controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. 'The human cooling program from dry ice was selected and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was 24 hours. 

'The patient was then placed in a cryostat for longterm cryonic storage.' Dry ice has a temperature of minus 78c. (109.3f) Liquid nitrogen is much colder at minus 196c (-321F) The institute said at the time of her death – October 17, 2016 – she was a member of the institute. 

Membership which costs $120 a year, with an initial charge of $75 allows cryopreservation at a reduced cost - $35,000. After the 14-year-old arrived, two further bodies have arrived at the cold store. 

Patient 144 was a 56 year old woman who arrived at Michigan by private jet, and patient 145 was a 78-year-old female from Michigan – who arrived much sooner – within two hours after death. 

The frozen 'fountain of youth'? Or false hope for those desperate to live forever? Controversial cryonics method sees people suspended in time waiting for a medical miracle 

Cold storage: Bodies and heads are held in tanks like these and will be kept at -196˚ C in the hope one day they can be 'woken up'

It is illegal to place a living human into cryonic preservation and the process can only be carried out once a client has been declared dead.

While some chose to preserve their whole body, which can cost up to £150,000, others opt for the cheaper option of freezing just their brain at a cost of £60,000, in the hope it can be transplanted into a living body.

All this is done despite no evidence a human or any other animal can survive the process.  

The preservation process begins by moving a body to an ice bed and cover them in a loose, slushy layer of ice.

A device called a 'heart-lung resuscitator' is used to get the blood pumping through the body again, and medication is applied to the body to prevent the cells from deteriorating.

Blood and bodily fluids are drained, then they are replaced with a solution like antifreeze.

Major blood vessels are then flushed of any blood before being swabbed with the antifreeze solution.

Kim Suozzi was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer and died in 2013 knowing she would be frozen. Matheryn Naovaratpong, from Thailand, right,  is thought to be the youngest person ever cryogenically preserved after she died last year

The antifreeze solution is used so that ice crystals do not form and damage any cells.

The body is then cooled down to about 0.5 degrees Celsius every hour until the final temperature of -196 degrees C achieved over three weeks then the frozen body is stored.

According to experts, there is no evidence that a whole human body can survive the process.

'Cryopreservation is a remarkable technology which allows us to store living cells, almost indefinitely, at ultra-low temperatures,' said Professor Barry Fuller, Professor in Surgical Science and Low Temperature Medicine at UCL.

WHERE CAN YOU BE FROZEN AFTER YOUR DEATH?

Cryonics Institute - Clinton Township, Michigan

Alcor Life extension Foundation - Scotsdale, Arizona

Oregon Cryonics – Salem, Oregon

TransTime - San Leandro , San Francisco

The US is no longer the sole preserve or cryogenics, with Russian firm KrioRus becoming one of the first to set up outside of the US.

'It has many useful applications in day to day medicine, such as cryopreserving blood cells, sperm and embryos.

'We have learnt that to survive the process, cells have to be treated with special non-toxic antifreezes, and to be handled in very specific ways. In fact, if they are to survive, frozen cells are not 'frozen' – they must contain no ice crystals, which would otherwise invariably kill them.

'However, cryopreservation has not yet been successfully applied to large structures, such as human kidneys for transplantation, because we have not yet adequately been able to produce suitable equipment to optimise all the steps,' Professor Fuller added.

'This is why we have to say that at the moment we have no objective evidence that a whole human body can survive cryopreservation with cells which will function after rearming.'  

Matheryn Naovaratpong, from Thailand, is thought to be the youngest person ever cryogenically preserved.

The toddler was diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer last April after she failed to wake up one morning, Motherboard's Brian Merchant reports

After being admitted to a Bangkok hospital, tests revealed she had a 11cm tumour in the left side of her brain.

In 2013 Kim Suozzi, 23, of St Louis, ignored the wishes of her religious family and decided to have her head placed in cryogenic storage after she entered into the final stages of her life.

Diagnosed with an aggressive form of Glioblastoma multiforme, Kim died on January 17th and spent the final two weeks of her life at a hospice in Scottsdale, Arizona, so that she was near to the cryopreservation center that she chose.

Kim had used the website Reddit to successfully help raise the $70,000 in funds she needed to fulfil her desire to have her head placed in cryonic preservation. 

BRITISH WIFE WHO WANTS TO COME BACK FROM THE DEAD 

Sylvia Sinclair with her husband Alan, who is thought to be the first British woman to be cryogenically frozen

Sylvia Sinclair is thought to be the first British woman frozen with the hope of being revived at a later date.

Her body was taken to the Cryonics Institute in Michigan, after she died of lung cancer aged 66 in 2013, and she was the 117th person in the world to be frozen there.

She and husband Alan, 78, became interested in cryonics while running a care home in Brighton when a TV programme sparked their interest. They set up Cryonics UK to help others looking to have their bodies preserved.

Mr Sinclair said in a previous interview: 'I instantly thought it was a good idea and Sylvia agreed. Sylvia and I were married for 46 years and I miss her desperately.

'The best-case scenario is that I pop off soon, and in a couple of hundred years we're reunited.

'No one wants to die, but waking up in another life with the woman you love would be absolutely lovely.' 

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