Sarah Gilbert

"Sarah Gilbert" (legal death in about February 1966) is the possible name of a woman who was cryopreserved by Cryo-Care Equipment Corporation on April 22, 1966. This was the first instance of a human being frozen with at least some thought of the cryonics premise of eventual revival, though conditions were adverse and prospects discouraging, as was admitted. She was cryopreserved almost a year before James Bedford.

Cryo-Care did not use cryoprotectants or perfusion with their patients but only did straight freezes to liquid nitrogen temperature. These freezings were advertised as being for cosmetic purposes rather than eventual reanimation. But, her relatives had an interest in her preservation for future revival and not just cosmetic preservation. However, Ed Hope, the president of Cryo-Care, did not believe in her revival.

Her anonymity was desired by her family. The patient, a still-unidentified, middle-aged woman from the Los Angeles area, was placed in liquid nitrogen some two months after being embalmed and stored at slightly above-freezing temperature in a mortuary refrigerator. Within a year she was thawed and buried by relatives.