First pictures of giant vat where tragic 14-year-old Brit girl will be frozen at -196C with five other corpses
The cancer patient was taken to the tomb in America after winning court battle to be cryogenically frozen after her death
INSIDE this giant frozen vat is the body of a 14-year-old British girl, stored with five other corpses in the hope they will one day be revived.
The Sun on Sunday was invited to see the white “cryostat” tank — codenamed HSSV-6-118 — where her body is now stored upside down.
She had been strapped to a plank, wrapped in a sheet and placed in a supermarket sleeping bag before being lowered head-first into the vat at the Cryonics Institute in Michigan.
The circular chamber, number 18 of 21 at the plant, was filled with liquid nitrogen to freeze it at -196C and sealed shut with a foam cork and 4ft metal lid after reaching its capacity of six bodies.
It will be re-opened only when staff there believe they can successfully resuscitate the girl — referred to as “patient 143” inside the 7,000sq ft warehouse.
Andy Zawacki, who is listed as chief operations officer at the institute but also doubles as its caretaker and is one of only two permanent staff, backed the teenager’s decision to be frozen.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was at the centre of a fierce court struggle after her mum supported her decision to freeze, but her angry dad did not.
She is the youngest frozen body at the institute — 3,700 miles from her London home.
Andy, 50, said: “The decision should lie with the person who makes it. I think the only time that should change is if it is an infant who cannot make its own decisions.
“Or unless it is financially devastating for the family. But it is the individual choice that matters most.
“I have talked to people where the spouse wasn’t in favour of it and it blows me away that one person can impose their views on someone else.
The worst that can happen is she remains dead. She might possibly be revived
“If you think about a decision like this — at 14, at 12, at ten — it’s to extend life, not end it. The worst that can happen is she remains dead. She might possibly be revived.”
The controversial institute — 45 minutes from Detroit — is located on a quiet road in an industrial estate.
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A total of 145 bodies are currently frozen inside, including at least 15 from the UK, with patients paying at least £22,500 to secure a place.
On arrival each body is taken to the facility’s “Perfusion Room”, placed on a metal table and drained of blood. A “cryo-protectant” is then pumped through the veins and arteries — with staff explaining it works like anti-freeze in a car.
The bodies are cooled for around 5½ days until they are ready to be placed inside the freezing tanks.
Each full chamber has six inside apart from one — where a hefty 32st patient meant only five could fit.
Corpses are hung upside down so any liquid nitrogen leak will affect the head last. In addition to humans, the institute houses around 100 frozen pets — including cats, dogs, parrots and even an iguana.
Some are kept in tanks alongside paying clients, although none are in the British teenager’s chamber.
Relatives of the dead are taken to the Memorial Room where a screen scrolls through photos of the frozen.
Eleven fake pink roses sit on a table in front of the TV in the room, which contains an electric fire.
Another room nearby is wall-to-wall with filing cabinets, full of photos and videos of the dead to remind them who they are when they wake.
Some 1,340 members from 43 countries are signed up to have their bodies transported to the centre when they die — including 95 from Britain and two from Ireland.
Sylvia Ann Sinclair is patient 117, after passing away in Peacehaven, East Sussex, in May 2013.
Andy, who started at the institute as a painter and handyman in 1985, says it will be full in five years. But chiefs plan to buy extra land on the estate rather than find a new site. The Catholic, added: “I don’t believe cryonics is against God’s will.
“People think we’re a scam but that’s just not true. We don’t make any money. I admit these bodies might never be resuscitated — I hope they will. But if you’re cremated or buried, you definitely aren’t coming back.”