Off The Record
James Bedford Has Been Cryonically Frozen For 50 Years
A professor at the University of California and a World War I veteran, Dr. James Hiram Bedford was a multi-talented guy who enjoyed a happy life and saw the world.
However, this man will be most famous for becoming the first to have their body cryopreserved.
It is the process of keeping a deceased person’s body (or brain) at extremely low temperatures.
In 1967, when medical technology was less developed than it is now, Bedford, a rather affluent guy, was diagnosed with kidney cancer that had spread to his lungs.
Bedford was aware of the idea of cryonic preservation at the time of his diagnosis.
He read about it in Dr. Robert Ettinger’s book The Prospect of Immortality.
Known as the father of body freezing experiments, Dr. Ettiger founded the Cryonics Institute.
In order to perhaps revive it in the future, when medical science has progressed to the point that it may treat the condition that led to the person’s death, his institute offers body freezing services after death.
After reading about this procedure, Bedfrod requested that his body be frozen.
After all of his blood was removed from his body, he received an injection of dimethyl sulfoxide in the afternoon of January 12, 1967, to protect his internal organs.
Bedford was then submerged in a liquid nitrogen tank that was 196 degrees Celsius below zero.
Twenty-four years later, Bedford’s body was opened and his cryogenic condition examined by Alcor, a company that does cryonic preservation.
The body was found to have been well preserved. His face appeared younger than his 73 years, and his mouth and nose smelt like blood.
His corneas were the powdery white of ice, and patches of skin on his neck and chest were discolored.
After that, Bedford was placed in a fresh sleeping bag and left to wait in liquid nitrogen.
He is still only a “mummy” now, more than 50 years after the time was supposed to be reached to wake Bredford.
According to Robert Nelson, one of three scientist who performed the cryonic preservation, Bredford’s last words were: “I want you to understand that I did not do this with the thought that I would be revived. I did this in the hope that one day my descendants will benefit from this wonderful scientific solution.”
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