Recently I wrote about cryopreservation. This will be a follow up post on that topic.
"The way I see it, it’s a better bet than decomposing or getting cremated."
Kim Suozzi
The quote above is taken from her personal blog , written on the 16th August 2012.
So it's a little bit old, but totaly get's my opinion on cryopreservation.
So who was/is Kim Suozzi?
Let's first handle was and is
Currently, from a legal perspective (I'm no lawyer by any means, so only dangerous half-knowledge here), Kim in the first place was a Girl living her life and getting brain cancer in the age of 21.
The cryonists perspective on her is a little different. According to cryonists she is a patient currently in cryonic suspension waiting for her treatment. The essential thing is she is and not she was as cryonists don't think the person is really dead, as long as most of the brain is not damaged and can be cryopreserved.
Her story
Kim was born somewhere sometime. Yes nothing specific here. :)
According to her blog she was diagnosed brain cancer at the age of 21.
She wasn't that much scared about her cancer anymore and resigned herself to die young.
About a year later a new scan showed some cells again in her brain, a recurrent tumor. As it was placed inside the midbrain and brainstem there wasn't a possibility to surgically remove it. Also clinical trails were very limited.
A lot of people will tell me not to lose hope, but I think it’s now time for me to truly accept that it’s just about the end for me. [...]
This is not to say that I’m going to stop pushing for the best treatment for my disease, but I need to set my expectations much lower.
Kim Suozzi
She found only a few scenarios left:
- best-case a clinical trail that gives her more time
- a standard drug "Avastin" (according to her limits the blood vessel growth in the tumor), but the results vary from 2 months more to live, to no months more
- worst-case neither one of the above works, and she doesn't have more than a few months.
Later that year (in August) there is the article "Last Wishes", thats were she started thinking about cryonics.
As here time was running out she tried to get the funds for the process via donations, which worked in her case. I'm happy for hear, as she took the opportunity to live, not now, but maybe later.
Which brings be back all the way to the beginning of the post:
"The way I see it, it’s a better bet than decomposing or getting cremated."
Kim Suozzi
She was cryopreserved at Alcor on Jannuary the 17th 2013.
Why are you bringing that up?
Well, I'm not deadly ill right now, at least nothing that I am aware of. And stories need to be told from time to time to not get forgotten.
Also I'm heavily digging down the cryonics rabbit hole right now, why shouldn't I share my findings, ideas and opinions?
So be prepared, there might be more articles like that coming :)
The sources that I have used for this article: