In February 2015, physician Sergio Canavero published an article in the International Journal of Neurosurgery on the surgical operation of transplanting a human head onto a donor's body under hypothermic conditions.
Valery Spiridonov, a thirty-year-old programmer from Russia, agrees to become the first person to undergo this operation. Valery suffers from spinal muscle atrophy, now he is communicating on Skype with Canavero and is preparing for a possible operation.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Valery said that his relatives support him, and that he himself has long been studying the issue of head transplantation to another body.
“Am I afraid? Of course I'm afraid. But this is not only scary, but also very interesting. But you need to understand that I don't have much choice. If I do not take this chance, my fate will be very sad. Every year I feel worse,”says Valery.
An Italian doctor told CNN that he has already received many letters from those wishing to take part in the experiment, but the first patients will be people suffering from muscular dystrophy.
Photo: ns2.vladregion.ru
The cost of the 36-hour operation will be £ 7.5 million. A body donor will be a person whose brain has died, but the body itself is healthy. For the operation, the patient's and donor's bodies will be cooled to 15 degrees to reduce the risk of death from lack of oxygen and at the same time to protect organs from changes as a result of exposure to low temperatures.
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The tissues and blood vessels around the neck will be cut open, the heads are attached to the bodies with special tubes, and then the surgeon will cut the spinal cords of both people with an ultra-thin blade.
The recipient's head will be transplanted onto the donor's body and the spinal cord will be connected with the use of polyethylene glycol, which in a certain way affects the spinal cord substance - this is compared to how spaghetti sticks together during cooking. Then all that remains is to restore blood circulation, sew the muscles and wait three to four weeks for the spinal cord to heal.
Photo: ns2.vladregion.ru
In addition to the actual preparation for the operation, the doctor will have to solve a number of problems, including choosing a state that will take on such responsibility and allow a head transplant on its territory.
Surgeons in the 20th century have already tried head transplants. In the 1950s, a Soviet surgeon "created" twenty animals with two heads, each of which lived no more than six days. The monkey, whose head was transplanted onto the body of another in 1970 in the United States, lived for more than a week. Canavero is confident that the technologies available today and the methods he developed himself will allow this experiment to be successful.
It is hoped that the operation will help Valery to get back on his feet.