This day in history: The first person cryogenically frozen
On January 12, 1967, something unprecedented happened in a nursing home in Glendale, California. James Bedford, a 73-year-old retired psychology professor, became the first human being ever cryogenically frozen with hopes of future revival.
A race against time
Bedford was dying from kidney cancer that had spread to his lungs when doctors arrived at 2060 Eleanore Drive around noon. At 1:15 PM, he murmured his final words, “I’m feeling better,” and died. What happened next was unprecedented. The Cryonics Society had just seven minutes to begin the process that Bedford hoped would someday bring him back to life.
An imperfect beginning
The procedure was remarkably crude by modern standards. Bedford’s team of doctors included Robert Prehoda, a cryobiological researcher, physician Dante Brunol, and Robert Nelson, president of the Cryonics Society of California. They injected dimethyl sulfoxide into his arteries without properly draining his blood first. The antifreeze compound, once thought useful for cryogenics, is no longer used and likely caused significant damage.
An adventurer to the end
Bedford lived an extraordinary life before becoming history’s first cryonaut. After nearly dying from diphtheria at age four, he devoted himself to adventure and travel. He went on safari in Africa, toured South American rainforests, and flew across Europe. When cancer struck in his seventies, he wasn’t ready for the journey to end.
A tumultuous afterlife
Bedford’s frozen body faced decades of moves and uncertainty. The original container developed leaks by 1970. He was transferred multiple times as cryonics facilities folded or relocated. From 1977 to 1982, his frustrated family stored him in a self-storage facility, occasionally topping off the liquid nitrogen. The $100,000 he left for preservation evaporated in legal battles with relatives who objected to his unconventional final resting place.
One brief examination
In 1991, Alcor Life Extension Foundation moved Bedford to a new storage tank in Scottsdale, Arizona. Staff examined his body for the first and only time in 24 years. His skin showed inflammation and fractures from temperature cycling. His nose had collapsed from being compressed by dry ice. Blood had frozen around his mouth. Yet to Alcor personnel fearing far worse damage, he appeared remarkably intact.
The reality check
Scientists remain deeply skeptical about cryonics ever working. Bedford’s crude preservation almost certainly caused irreversible brain damage. True vitrification, which prevents damaging ice crystals, wasn’t developed until the 1980s. One medical professor stated bluntly at the time, “He’s dead once he’s frozen, and he’s not going to come back again.”
Food for thought
Bedford still resides at Alcor today, joined by baseball legend Ted Williams and around 300 frozen bodies and brains. Another 3,000 people have arranged to join them upon death. His family chose traditional burial, meaning if Bedford somehow revives, he’ll wake among strangers in an unfamiliar world. For now, he remains frozen in what Alcor calls a state akin to deep coma, waiting for a future that may never come.
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