Yes indeed. As I said in the original reply, I have no cryo plans set up. Then again, the odds of your brain being in a good enough shape for cryo long enough after a bad car crash are not good. Consider that for the cryo measures to be triggered on time, you have to end up in a hospital alive, with an intact brain, but fatally injured otherwise, and live long enough for the cryo team to negotiate with the hospital to get a hold of your body right after you die, but not long enough to be able to make cryo arrangements from scratch, should you wish to.
If you die in a car crash, your brain will most likely suffer massive damage (from traumatic injury or ischemia or both) long before any attempt at cryopreservation could be made. I suppose this also applies to all the most common causes of death before 45 − 50.
I’m not a doctor so I may be missing something important, but I can’t think of any type of predictably fatal traumatic injury that leaves you alive with an essentially intact brain for at least 1 − 2 days.
Notably: “In the western world, the most common cause of death after trauma is severe brain injury.”, “In modern day civilian trauma centres, thoracic injury directly accounts for 20-25% of deaths due to trauma; thoracic injury or its complications are a contributing factor in a further 25% of trauma deaths”
Death in the vast majority of cases entails general ischemia due to the cessation of circulation, trauma or no. How sensitive your brain is to a lack of oxygen is easily tested by having someone compress both your carotid arteries for 60 seconds. (The exception to the death-ischemia link would be brain death with circulation upheld for a variety of reasons, most commonly viability for organ transplantation.)
The killer consideration with fatal traumatic injuries is their unpredictability. Such an event will most probably drastically prolong the time to cryopreservation, at least by hours. Where are you? Which hospital are you announced dead in? Where’s the nearest cryopreservation team? When in the process are they notified? How long is their travel time? How much damage is done while you’re not yet announced dead?
The delay, hours of ischemia (while being dead), is what will degrade your brain tissue to a microscopically garbled mess, regardless of the specific type of trauma.
It bears repeating: Even the penumbra of neurons = the peripheral neurons that after a stroke still get some measure of oxygen are given up upon after 4-5 hours (no benefit from further treatment). The central neurons most affected by an ischemic event are considered lost within an hour.
Do you want to set up your own cryo plans?
I suspect that I can probably borrow enough against a regular life insurance if and when the time comes.
The time might come with a car crash, nullifying this strategy.
Yes indeed. As I said in the original reply, I have no cryo plans set up. Then again, the odds of your brain being in a good enough shape for cryo long enough after a bad car crash are not good. Consider that for the cryo measures to be triggered on time, you have to end up in a hospital alive, with an intact brain, but fatally injured otherwise, and live long enough for the cryo team to negotiate with the hospital to get a hold of your body right after you die, but not long enough to be able to make cryo arrangements from scratch, should you wish to.
If you die in a car crash, your brain will most likely suffer massive damage (from traumatic injury or ischemia or both) long before any attempt at cryopreservation could be made. I suppose this also applies to all the most common causes of death before 45 − 50.
I understand the point, but do you have any stats on this or just guessing? Esp. for adult drivers buckle in and such.
Guessing.
I’m not a doctor so I may be missing something important, but I can’t think of any type of predictably fatal traumatic injury that leaves you alive with an essentially intact brain for at least 1 − 2 days.
Some statistics
Notably: “In the western world, the most common cause of death after trauma is severe brain injury.”, “In modern day civilian trauma centres, thoracic injury directly accounts for 20-25% of deaths due to trauma; thoracic injury or its complications are a contributing factor in a further 25% of trauma deaths”
Death in the vast majority of cases entails general ischemia due to the cessation of circulation, trauma or no. How sensitive your brain is to a lack of oxygen is easily tested by having someone compress both your carotid arteries for 60 seconds. (The exception to the death-ischemia link would be brain death with circulation upheld for a variety of reasons, most commonly viability for organ transplantation.)
The killer consideration with fatal traumatic injuries is their unpredictability. Such an event will most probably drastically prolong the time to cryopreservation, at least by hours. Where are you? Which hospital are you announced dead in? Where’s the nearest cryopreservation team? When in the process are they notified? How long is their travel time? How much damage is done while you’re not yet announced dead?
The delay, hours of ischemia (while being dead), is what will degrade your brain tissue to a microscopically garbled mess, regardless of the specific type of trauma.
It bears repeating: Even the penumbra of neurons = the peripheral neurons that after a stroke still get some measure of oxygen are given up upon after 4-5 hours (no benefit from further treatment). The central neurons most affected by an ischemic event are considered lost within an hour.
Interesting strategy. It would be a good idea to validate this possibility now rather than when you suddenly need it.
(ETA: I am confused by the parent being downvoted. I don’t think it is effective to punish people for honestly answering questions.)
I know that it is possible, but no, I haven’t looked into the details.