50 Years Later, What Happened Next Will Shock You!

It has been over 50 years, and people are still asking if science can bring a frozen man back to life. Can modern technology revive someone who has been dead for decades? This is a question many people want answered. Half a century ago, Dr. James Hiram Bedford believed it was possible. Hoping to live again someday, he volunteered to have his body frozen, with the goal of being revived in 2017.

Now, three years after that hoped-for date, everyone wonders what happened to this man, who was once one of America’s richest.

James Hiram Bedford was a psychology professor at the University of California and a World War I veteran. He lived a full and adventurous life in the mid-1900s. He was married twice and traveled to many places, including Africa, the Amazon rainforest, and countries like Greece, Turkey, Spain, England, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. He even drove on the Alcan Highway to Canada and Alaska, one of the first people to do so.

In 1967, James was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer, which had spread to his lungs. At that time, medical technology could not save him, and he had to accept his fate. But James had read a book called The Prospect of Immortality by Dr. Robert Ettinger, the founder of the Cryonics Institute. This book introduced the idea of freezing a body after death in the hope of being revived in the future. Inspired by this, James decided to undergo cryonics. Robert Nelson carried out the freezing process on James, injecting him with a chemical called dimethyl sulfoxide shortly after his death on January 12, 1967.

Before James, in 1966, a woman in Arizona was also frozen, but her preservation only lasted a few months. Experts believe this failed because her body was frozen too late, allowing her cells to decay, and if she were ever revived, her brain would have been severely damaged.

James’ freezing process became public knowledge in January 2017 when it was reported by the Daily Telegraph. According to the report, James’ last words to Robert Nelson, one of the three scientists involved in the procedure, were: “I am not doing this because I think I will be revived. I am doing this in the hope that my descendants can benefit from this amazing scientific experiment.”

James left behind more than $100,000 (about 2 billion VND in today’s money) to pay for the freezing process. On January 12, 1967, at the age of 73, James passed away in a nursing home after suffering a heart attack. Dr. Renault Able performed CPR to keep his blood circulating, after which all his blood was drained and replaced with dimethyl sulfoxide to protect his organs. His body was then placed in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius.

In 1991, after 24 years, Alcor, a cryonics company, examined James’ body to check its condition. After opening the metal container, they found James wrapped in a pale blue sleeping bag and nylon straps. He was moved to a new tank filled with liquid nitrogen and examined.

The technicians noted that James’ body was well-preserved. His face looked younger than 73, but there were some changes. Parts of his chest and neck were discolored, and his body had two holes. Blood odors were present near his nose and mouth, his eyes were half-open, and his corneas were icy white. His legs were crossed, and cracks were found in some parts of his skin. Despite this, the overall preservation was considered good. The team re-wrapped James in a new sleeping bag and returned him to the liquid nitrogen tank.

Now, three years after the hoped-for revival date, James remains frozen in the tank alongside 145 other preserved bodies, waiting for the day when science might bring them back to life.