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Suspended Animation / Cryogenic Suspension

Suspended Animation has long been a subject of Sci-Fi stories, ranging in use
from extending the window for life saving medical treatment to travel between
the stars. Little do most people know, suspended animation is no longer only
in the realm of the imagination. As a matter of fact, it has been "successfully"
performed as long ago as the 1940's. Here are a few things I have found
interesting and informative on the subject.

The first case of human cryogenic suspension occured in 1967 when
Dr. James Bedford was frozen in, you guessed it, Glendale California.

An article on Wired about a team made up of Mike Duggan, a veterinary surgeon,
and Hasan Alam, a trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, who have
successfully suspended 200 pigs for an hour each, with the pigs recieving
optimal treatment all surviving.

The interesting legal quandry surrounding the desire to be "suspended" is
already being carefully explored.

BioTime, Inc. already makes several blood replacement products for use in short term
human suspension or "HYPOTHERMIC HEART AND BRAIN SURGERY" as they term it.

In the 1940's Dr. S.S. Bryukhonenko at the Institute of Experimental Physiology
and Therapy, Voronezh, U.S.S.R. conducted experiments with reviving dogs.
videos and some mostly intelligent commentary.
Local copy of the video.
Wikipedia article on canine re-animation

Dr. Peter Safar, the founding father of modern CPR, is the
recognized leader in suspended animation research. Dr. Safar is the founder of
the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research
and still working on therapeutic body cooling.
Current Brain Resuscitation work at the Safar Center.
Reviving clinically dead dogs - "Boffins create zombie dogs"
(original link not working, try here for a quoted copy.)
also from the Safar Center.

Dr. Mark Roth has placed mice in a "state close to suspended animation"
using hydrogen sulfide gas as described in this Washington Post article
in his lab at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

And of course, the obligatory wikipedia entry for Suspended Animation.