The death of 24-year-old Chelsea Ake-Salvacion brought a flood of criticism to Cryotherapy after the young woman died in a cryotherapy chamber. Before I continue about her death, I would like to note that people do care about his young woman and her death is meaningful, regardless of the article title. However, blaming her death on full-body cryotherapy as a whole is like blaming the hurricane for the death of a storm chaser. Ake-Salvacion was responsible for her own death by putting herself in the dangerous situation and making two critical mistakes.

She died from asphyxiation. Ake-Salvacion died from breathing in liquid nitrogen produced from the cryotherapy chamber, not from the cold. This means that she likely set the height wrong and her head was not far enough from the chamber, submerging her head in the deadly gas. Something so simple that would have saved her life.

She did it alone. Had Ake-Salvacion been supervised during her cryotherapy session, she would still be alive. Unfortunately, she was alone after hours when she decided to hop in the cryotherapy chamber. If someone had been there, it is more likely they would have adjusted the chamber to the right height, or been there to turn the machine off when she passed out. Instead, the chamber stayed on for 10 more hours, freezing her body rock-solid. Additional side note: the spa did not have a license, adding to the multiple reasons it was shut down following Ake-Salvacion’s death.

Cryotherapy, when used correctly, will not cause death. When used incorrectly, it will. Ake-Salvacion’s death was caused by her own mistakes that alone would not cause death, but when put together created a deadly domino effect. This incident was two years ago, and the criticism and questions about cryotherapy’s safety still linger. It is important to know that the mistakes made by one do not reflect all and that using this death as an attack on cryotherapy is misleading and out of context.

Sources: [1] [2] [3]