Suspended animation and cryonics are no longer science fiction

A team of surgeons at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are being allowed to place the traumatically wounded victims of gunshot wounds into suspended animation to gain time before blood loss decreases the chance of survival or, in the survivors, permanent decreases in cognitive function and memory loss. The trial will allow this one team to use this technique on ten emergency victims, who will have their body temperatures decreased to 50F (10C) with a special focus on decreasing cellular activity in the brain.The temperature drop involves forcing cooled saline through the heart to the brain, dropping critical tissue to temperatures low enough, they no longer require an oxygen source to remain intact. Normally, brain tissue begins to take permanent damage after 5 minutes without oxygen. In these trials, patients may remain in suspended animation for up to two hours, giving surgeons more time to rebuild and repair before attempting to revive the patient.First attempted on pigs in 2000, this technique was successfully tested by giving pigs massive injuries similar to those of gunshot victims, draining them of over 50% of their blood supply. A successful revival of these patients has led to this year's trial on humans, many of which have less than a 7% chance of survival upon entering the hospital. If the technique is successful, the times in which patients can be placed into a protective "sleep" would increase and also be transferred to protect patients with different medical conditions.This technique could be important in other medical fields as well. Heart attack victims could have heart tissue protected in a similar fashion until surgery could repair and limit damage. Organ donation could also benefit if portable systems could be used in the field, though organ printing may eradicate the need for donors.If this works and is proven safe, the social impacts could be interesting. Just last year, Kim Suozzi was cryogenically frozen by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. A trope in the science fiction world, the ability to place space travelers in suspended animation has always been one of the key advancements to minimize both aging and resource requirements when traveling the light years to other planets.If UPMC is successful and Suozzi can eventually be reanimated and cured, science fiction becomes the norm. What happens then? Most scientific advancements give us more options. Besides buying time before death or surviving until a cure is available, what other options might we gain?In the series The Peace War, The Ungoverned, and Marooned in Realtime (collected in Across Realtime), Vernor Vinge explores the ability to create 'bobbles', spheres of timed stasis in which the contents do not suffer from the movement of time and remain in exactly the same condition until the time runs out and the sphere ends. One of the uses of this technology is the ability to re-bobble into the future, effectively turning the users into one-way time travelers.Might those with the resources use suspended animation as a way to surf the future, returning to life every so often to get a feel for a new age? I'm sure it will be tempting for many, but they should keep in mind how things worked out in Idiocracy before taking that plunge - unless they really like electrolytes. Most suicides are a reaction to the need to escape the pain of existence and not a need to die. Might individuals choose to place themselves in suspended animation in place of a permanent end? It might be expensive at first, but if prices were reduced to affordable levels, individuals could choose to remove themselves from their situations for a time. Prisoners are an issue for any society, dealing with the security risks, resource use, and programs to rehabilitate before release. In societies where rehabilitation is neither valued or offered, suspended animation would both remove the individual from society and also from political involvement.The use of this type of system would be heavily debated. On one end of the spectrum, Nelson Mandela was a global focus of apartheid, influenced South African politics, and completed his law degree. A Mandela in stasis would be able to do none of these things. On the other hand, Adolf Hitler penned Mein Kampf and set the foundation for what would become the National Socialist German Workers' party, including plans for a government based on race.It's important to note both were considered dangerous to the current governments when imprisoned.In a year, we should receive updates on the success of UPMC and, as soon as her form of cancer has a high chance of cure, Suozzi might make headlines across the world with her first words.