Surely many people remember the Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, who intended to carry out a human head transplant. Since then, it seemed, apart from statements, nothing new happened, but, as it turned out, all this time, Mr. Canavero was preparing not only for a head transplant operation, but also for a larger-scale manipulation of a brain transplant.
In addition to the ambitious plan, Sergio's first patient also changed. Previously, the first patient was supposed to be a Russian, Valery Spiridonov, diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy, but now the right to be the first has passed to a resident of China, whose name has not yet been announced. The Chinese colleague Sergio Shaoping Ren also takes part in the conduct and preparation for the operation, and the choice of the patient will depend on the availability of a compatible donor.
The location of the operation has also changed: if earlier the transplant was planned to be carried out in Germany or the UK, now the operation is being prepared on the territory of the Harbin Medical Center. Despite the still fantastic assertion about the future success of this manipulation, a team of scientists has already successfully transplanted the head of one rat to the body and head of a second, using the bloodstream of another rodent. With this, the surgeons protected the rats from blood loss and hypothermia. However, the donor rat was clearly in pain.
A unique operation is scheduled for December this year. And if the operation is successful, the Italian will start working towards a brain transplant. According to the surgeon, on the one hand, this will be a less difficult task, since in this case it will not be necessary to transplant all the vessels, tendons, muscles and nerves. On the other hand, problems of a different nature may arise with the brain, for example, it is not known how the human brain will react to the “replacement” of the body, in addition, the cranium will have a different configuration.
For his own purposes, Sergio Canavero is going to use the brains of people who have subjected their body to cryofreeze. According to the specialist, perhaps already in 2018 the first frozen patients will be able to return to life.
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VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV
