Javier Ruiz, third cryogenized Spaniard: "My husband is not completely dead"

On Thursday afternoon, Sonsoles Ónega's program addressed the case of Lia, a woman who was determined to resurrect her husband and who was already immersed in the process.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
17 April 2024 Wednesday 23:04
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Javier Ruiz, third cryogenized Spaniard: "My husband is not completely dead"

On Thursday afternoon, Sonsoles Ónega's program addressed the case of Lia, a woman who was determined to resurrect her husband and who was already immersed in the process. And her husband, Javier Ruiz Álvarez, who died in 2016 due to a heart attack, had undergone a cryopreservation process, becoming the first case in the Iberian Peninsula, and the third Spanish case.

As revealed in the Antena 3 program, Lia had hired the services of a company to keep a part of her husband until science allowed her to have a second chance. A process that in Spain is illegal, since it is not prohibited, but it is not contemplated in the law either.

Before interviewing the protagonist of the case, the program And Now Sonsoles spoke live with José Luis Cordeiro, an expert in cryonics and longevity, who assured that it was possible to revive. ''It is already done with different types of cells and the greatest example today is the freezing of eggs and also embryos. Twelve million human beings have been born and have been cryopreserved,' he declared. ''Science was advancing and in five or ten years we will be able to cryopreserve hearts and lungs,'' he added.

Cordeiro assured that the procedure was simple. ''First you have to leave it written in a will or have your relatives do your will. The first step is to cool the body as soon as it dies, then the blood is put into circulation to put a cryoprotectant, which prevents crystals from forming,' he explained.

Moments later, the presenter interviewed the widow of Javier Ruiz Álvarez, who assured that "her husband was not completely dead." ''Some part of him still exists,'' she declared. And Lia had cryopreserved her husband's brain because he would have wanted it. ''We had not talked about it because he died suddenly at the age of 50. That's why I made that decision,' she said. After performing the autopsy and taking him to the funeral home, the doctors told her that her only option was to perform a brain extraction to cryogenize it. ''His brain is now in Germany,'' she noted.

Regarding whether she hoped to reunite with her husband, Lia was not sure, but she trusted the advancement of science. What she did make clear is that this process was an option to "stop death." Finally, the guest ended the interview by assuring that in the future she would also like to be cryopreserved.