Hibernation sickness

"Just relax for a moment. You're free of the carbonite. Shh. You have hibernation sickness."
"I can't see."
"Your eyesight will return in time."

―Leia Organa and Han Solo^[1]

Hibernation sickness,^[3] also known as carbonite sickness^[4] or carbon sickness,^[5] was a medical condition that could occur when a person was brought out of suspended animation in carbonite. It was known to cause death. Victims who survived often experienced exhaustion, weakness, dehydration, dizziness, memory loss, and temporary blindness. If they were thawed shortly after freezing, they usually wouldn't suffer from many ill effects.^[6]

History

For long journeys before the Hyperdrive was invented, carbon freezing was used by space travelers as a form of suspended animation. Upon thawing, many of them suffered from Hibernation Sickness and death was a common side effect.^[3]

During the Clone Wars when Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker, Rex, Cody, Echo, Longshot and Charger. used carbonite freezing to infiltrate Separatist lines, when Obi-Wan discovered Ahsoka was frozen too, he mentioned the condition believing she was a hallucination, however Anakin assured him it wasn't and that she had stowed away against his will. But Obi-Wan accepted her to tag along.^[7] Andris could be used as a remedy for hibernation sickness.^[8] Han Solo suffered from a mild case of hibernation sickness after being rescued from carbonite by Leia Organa in the palace of Jabba the Hutt.^[1] A Mythrol said he still could not see out of his left eye after being frozen in carbonite.^[2]