Frozen child: The youngest person to be cryogenically preserved

Frozen child: The youngest person to be cryogenically preserved

Matheryn Naovaratpong is the youngest child to be preserved in this way
Earlier this year, a two-year-old Thai girl became the youngest person to be cryogenically frozen, preserving her brain moments after death in the hope that she will one day be brought back to life. The BBC's Jonathan Head visited her family outside Bangkok to ask why they chose to grieve this way.

The room where Matheryn Naovaratpong spent the last few months of her life is bare and white, furnished only with the drip-stand that helped sustain her, and her cot, also white. The only splash of colour in this austere setting comes from a small gold Buddhist statue, a few favourite stuffed toys, and a huge portrait of the little girl on the wall.

It has the feel of a shrine to a young life tragically cut short. 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.

"The first day Einz was sick, this idea came to my mind right away that we should do something scientifically for her, as much as is humanly possible at present," says her father, Sahatorn. "I felt a real conflict in my heart about this idea, but I also needed to hold onto it. So I explained my idea to my family."

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."

'This will happen one day'

At first Sahatorn said it was difficult for the rest of the family to accept this idea, but as Einz's health deteriorated, they came round.

eddie wrote:I'm with you wolfie.  The idea creeps me out if I'm honest, but I can understand the desperation of the parents.

Ziz wrote:

eddie wrote:I'm with you wolfie.  The idea creeps me out if I'm honest, but I can understand the desperation of the parents.

And if you have the cash to burn perhaps the hope it brings is good value.

eddie wrote:

Ziz wrote:

And if you have the cash to burn perhaps the hope it brings is good value.

Yes and that's what it is Ziz, it's buying hope. I can understand that and sympathise with it.

eddie wrote:It's Stephen King's 'Pet Cemetry'
Freaked me out, that book.