Experimental Cryogenics Brings Patients Back From The Dead

It’s cryogenics with an immediate twist—you don't have to wait thousands of years to be saved. Using new techniques, people are being “frozen” immediately after “dying” in order to slow cell death—giving doctors vital time to fix what ails them before warming them back up to a new life.

The experimental cooling treatment is bringing dead people back to life in situations conventionally considered past resuscitation. Doctors in Philadelphia are currently working on improving the revolutionary technique.

Typically, during cardiac arrest the heart stops beating. When that occurs people are often declared dead within minutes. But the technique employed by doctors at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital is literally bringing people back from the dead. Dr. Lance Becker and his team say the new technique could literally save hundreds of thousands of lives if widely implemented. Scientists don’t yet really understand why cooling works, only that it does.

61-year-old Bill Bondar is living proof that people can be brought back from the brink death relatively unscathed using the technique.

"I didn't know I died, I didn't feel anything, I still don't believe it," Bill said.

But after collapsing outside the couple’s home, Bill’s heart completely stopped beating.

"I looked at his face, and I was looking at a dead man," Bill's wife Monica said. "That was the most frightening thing I ever saw in my life and I knew my husband was gone. He was gone."

Paramedics were eventually able to get his heartbeat back, but that's only one part of the battle. Cells continue to die, causing damage to vital organs such as the brain, which is often fatal.

Once Bill was taken to Penn, he received the new experimental treatment using chilled saline that's injected directly into the patient. Cooling pads are then wrapped around the patient. The body temperature, which is normally 98 degrees, is brought down to just 92 degrees. Doctors keep it there for about 24 hours. The process is referred to as intentional hypothermia.

"It decreases cellular injury when the cells are deprived of oxygen, so with less injury we are able to do a better job of getting people back," explained Dr. Becker.

A similar type of cooling therapy—a quick infusion of cold saline—also helped Buffalo Bills football player Kevin Everett. After a devastating spinal cord injury, the therapy is accredited with allowing him to move again.

Dr. Becker said he wants the cooling therapy to be even faster, so they're now developing a slushy type of saline that’s full of small ice particles, rather than just cold saline. It would be injected into the blood stream to more quickly reduce body temperature.

"We really believe that that is going to save lives in a way that we haven't even seen," said Dr. Becker.

Currently, the experimental cooling treatment at HUP can only be used on certain patients. But doctors expect it will eventually become a critical standard of care for bringing dead patients back to life.

Posted by Rebecca Sato