Youngest person to be cryogenically preserved: Matheryn Naovaratpong sets world record (VIDEO) BANGKOK, Thailand -- Two-year-old Thai girl Matheryn Naovaratpong became the youngest person to be cryogenically frozen, her brain being preserved at the point of death; her parents say they are "100% convinced" future medical advances mean she will one day be restored to life, according to the World Record Academy. Photo: Two-year-old Thai girl Matheryn Naovaratpong became the youngest person to be cryogenically frozen, her brain being preserved at the point of death. She suffered from a rare form of brain cancer that proved fatal just before her third birthday earlier this year. Photoprovided by the family. (enlarge photo)
The Guinness World Records' record for the largest reunion of people born at the same hospital is 1,221 and was achieved by The Medical City and History (both Philippines), in Market Market, Taguig City, Philippines, on 12 April 2015.
Guinness World Records also recognized the world record for the Youngest person to have research results published, set by Emily Rosa, of Loveland, Colorado, USA, who became the youngest person to have research published in a scientific or medical journal at age 11, when an article she co-authored appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association on 1 April 1998. Matheryin, or Einz as her family nicknamed her, developed a rare form of brain cancer just after her second birthday. She died on 8 January 2015, just before she turned three.
But by then her parents, both medical engineers, had made a decision that they hope may give Einz another chance of life.
That idea was to preserve Einz through technology known as cryonics. The body, or in Einz's case just her brain, is put into a deeply frozen state at the point of death, and kept that way until, at some point in the future, extraordinary advances in medical technology allow her to be revived, and for a new body to be created for her.
"As scientists we are 100% confident this will happen one day - we just don't know when," he said. "In the past we might have thought it would take 400 to 500 years, but right now we can imagine it might be possible in just 30 years."
The Naovaratpong family chose Alcor, an Arizona-based non-profit organisation that is the leading provider of what it calls "life extension" services, to carry out the preservation of Einz's brain. The family was closely involved in the preparations, designing the special coffin in which she would be transported to the United States.
A standby team from Alcor flew to Thailand to supervise the initial cooling of the body. As the little girl deteriorated, she was moved from hospital to her own room.
The moment she was pronounced dead, the Alcor team begin what is known as "cryoprotection"; removing bodily fluids and replacing them with forms of anti-freeze that allow the body to be deep frozen without suffering large-scale tissue damage.
After arriving in Arizona her brain was extracted, and is preserved at a temperature of -196C. She is Alcor's 134th patient, and by far its youngest.
Einz's parents hope that future technological advances will allow for a new body to be created for her frozen brain.
"As scientists we are 100% confident this will happen one day - we just don't know when," Sahatorn said. "In the past we might have thought it would take 400 to 500 years, but right now we can imagine it might be possible in just 30 years."
The Naovaratpongs say they have donated similar sums of money to what they have spent on Einz's cryopreservation to cancer research in Thailand.
