Cryonic preservation: 50 years later

Dr. James Hiram Bedford was a man of many talents – a professor at the University of California and a veteran of World War I who lived a fulfilled life and traveled the world. But this man will be best remembered as the first person whose body underwent cryonic preservation. It is the practice of preserving a human body (or brain) at extremely low temperatures after death.

Bedford, who was a rather wealthy man, was diagnosed with kidney cancer that metastasized to his lungs in 1967, a time when the medicine was not as advanced as it is today.

At the time of his diagnosis, Bedford was familiar with the concept of cryonic preservation.

He read about in the book The Prospect of Immortality by Dr. Robert Ettinger.

Dr. Ettiger is the founder of the Cryonics Institute and is considered the father of body freezing experiments. His institute provides body freezing services after death, with the aim of potentially reviving it in the future when medical technology has advanced enough to cure the condition that caused the individual’s death.

Having read about this process, Bedfrod asked his body to be frozen after his passing.

On the afternoon of January 12, 1967, he was injected with dimethyl sulfoxide – to protect his internal organs – after all his blood was drained from his body.

Next, they placed Bedford in a tank of liquid nitrogen at minus 196 degrees Celsius.

Twenty-four years later, Alcor, an organization performing cryonic preservation, opened Bedford’s body and checked his cryogenic condition.