Florida's First Body-Freezing Cryonics Facility Now Open In Miami
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A South Florida accountant has started up a new business: freezing bodies. It's Florida's first body-freezing cryonics facility in the hopes of freezing individuals and then bringing them back to life in a few decades. Is it eternal life or science fiction?
It's called Osiris, who is the Egyptian God of the afterlife, and it's located in a warehouse just a few blocks away from the Opa-Locka flea market.
Dvir Derhy, a well-to-do accountant, built the cryonics lab; a place where hours after you die you can be frozen, or preserved, until a day there is a cure from whatever killed you. Then, they say, they can bring you back to life. Derhy expects to be customer number 1.
"Of course I believe. This is the only chance we have. Right now if someone chooses cremation or burial he has no chance to be revived in the future. So this is the only chance as far I see. Definitely, my body will be preserved when the time comes," he told CBS4's David Sutta.
Derhy explained the four stages cryonics.
First, ice water to bring your body temperature down and preserve cells, then they drain your blood. Apparently, frozen blood isn't good for your veins. In the third stage, they lower you in what could be described as a giant cooler; a cooler you'll spend a week in. Nitrogen is pumped in on a timer bringing your body to a cool negative 200 Celsius.
The fourth stage involves tall metal containers about 10-feet tall.
"This is the fourth stage. The bodies will be heads down. And this container can hold up to 4 to 6 bodies. And they will be wrapped with sleeping bags, so the liquid nitrogen will not hurt the skin," he explained.
So your temporary, not final, resting place is an aluminum container full of nitrogen. "They can be here 10, 50, even 100 years," he said.
Worldwide, there are only a handful of cryonics labs. Roughly 250 people are currently quote frozen. The most famous may be Major League Baseball player Ted Williams, whose family publicly fought over it years ago.
As for Walt Disney being frozen? That's just a rumor.
Expensive Leap Of Faith
Cryonics is not cheap. You can freeze just your brain for $100,000. Derhy will freeze your whole body for a bit more.
"It cost 295,000. You have three options to pay. Life insurance, where we become the beneficiary, or we can lean on the property and sell it when the member passes, or through varies installment plans, flexible installment plan to pay cash," Derhy explained.
Without a doubt Cryonics is an expensive leap of faith and maybe even a little bizarre considering Derhy is an accountant.
So CBS4 looked into Derhy's background. David Sutta soon discovered Derhy was arrested two years ago in an FBI sting. Derhy tried to bribe Miami fire inspectors with 10-thousand dollars stuffed in an envelope. He hoped to make violations go away. Last year, he pleaded guilty and went to prison for a month. When we followed up with Derhy on the issue, he tried to explain.
"I'm 48 years old. That was the first and only offense I ever did in America or any other country in the world. I understand it would be better if I wouldn't have done that. Of course I regret about doing that. I don't want to make accusations about why I did it and they pushed me. I did what I did and I can't change it," Derhy said.
Real Doctors?
Derhy explained Osiris is legitimate. He claims he even has real doctors on staff. Jamie Mesa sat in a conference room with Sutta saying "I am a doctor." When pressed on his degree Mesa explained he's a double bachelor graduate in his home country of Columbia. He said he had worked in the emergency room and in pathology settings. When Sutta asked about his license, he explained he's not exactly a doctor.
"I'm not licensed in the United States to work as a physician. But that doesn't mean I'm not a physician. I am not licensed here right now. I will get my license but it doesn't have anything to do with Cryonics," Mesa explained.
He's right. Being a doctor has nothing to do with cryonics. Derhy explained it's still quite science fiction.
"There is no school for cryonics. There is not even one university or college in state or even the world that can teach you cryonics," he said. In other words just about anyone can do it. "Anybody. You need to read about it, learn about it," Derhy confirmed.
So with knowledge gleamed from the internet, unlicensed doctors advising, funding from a successful accountant, you too can hope for eternal life after a short decade or century in an Opa-Locka warehouse.
Derhy guaranteed he's only in this because it's his passion. "There are no promises made. I'm trying to say for sure 100% you are going to be revived. And we don't know when. It could 10 years or 50 years from now. We are promising a very simple promise. To keep your body in storage frozen 200 degrees below zero Celsius until technology catches up," Derhy said.
Osiris has yet to get their first customer, besides Derhy himself. When he has about ten customers Derhy says he plans to have a board of directors govern the company. Still the profits, profits he says he's not interested in, go to him. Cryonics is also a gray issue in Florida.
It's not regulated, but at the same time, not permitted. Technically anyone signing up for cryonics would have to sign a waiver offering their body up for research, not just preservation.
If you are interested in learning more about Osiris visit www.osiriscryonics.com
