Brit frozen in liquid nitrogen chamber for chance of reawakening in far future

A British man desperate for a second shot at life has had his body flown across the pond and cryogenically frozen in a liquid nitrogen container.

The man, named only as "Patient 268", has been transported to the US as part of an advanced programme ripped straight from the pages of classic science fiction novels. He signed up with the Institute (CI), a medical organisation based in Michigan which operates laboratories housing "long-term cryonic storage" facilities designed to resurrect people long after their time. Hundreds of Brits use the service, with the latest patient arriving following a 3,700-mile trip earlier this year.

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Patient 268 died on February 11, and was cooled in a process carried out by Cryonics UK, a non-profit which prepares people for cryopreservation. He was stored with dry ice and cooled well below freezing over 25 hours while the group secured transport permits for the mammoth journey, and arrived in the US 16 days after his death.

He became the 128th British customer to make use of the CI's "suspension" services on February 27, when his body arrived a Detroit Metro Airport and was picked up by the organisation. A spokesperson for CI said the they were placed in a "computer controlled cooling chamber" cooled to the temperature of liquid nitrogen.

The spokesperson told : "Once the details for transit were in place, the patient was transported to Detroit Metro Airport, where he was picked up and brought to the CI facility. The patient arrived at the CI facility on February 27 at 9.30pm.

"The patient was then transferred to the computer-controlled cooling chamber to cool to liquid nitrogen temperature. The human dry ice program was selected and the time needed to cool the patient to liquid nitrogen temperature was 25 hours.

"The patient was then placed in a cryostat for long-term cryonic storage." Liquid nitrogen is one of the coldest substances on earth, and hits -196C. CI, which has operated for nearly 50 years, places human remains in a "cryostat" filled with the liquid in a bid to keep them fresh for potential future scientific advancements that could have them resurrected.

The organisation's facilities are the largest in the , with staff caring for "de-animated" people from all walks of life, with current residents including chefs, professors and secretaries. Those who wish to make use of CI facilities - which house more than 250 patients across two sites - must pay for the pleasure.

CI offers three programmes; a $1,250 (£963) "lifetime" membership with $28,000 (£21,573) "human cryopreservation" costs, an annual $120 (£92) membership with $35,000 (£26,967) cryopreservation costs, and a non-member, post-mortem programme through which people can pay $1,250 and $45,000 (£34,671) for cryopreservation without a membership.

The organisation's longest-running patient, Rhea Ettinger, was placed in her supercooled container in 1977. Ms Ettinger is the mother of Robert Ettinger, the "father of cryonics" who founded the CI and remains preserved at the facility alongside her and his first and second wives.

Current CI chief Dennis Kowalski has carried his torch for more than 10 years, and believes death is something to be "defeated". He said earlier this year: "The grave is your only real alternative and that's complete oblivion. So we want to defeat man's greatest enemy - death itself."