Terminally ill man set to undergo world's first full HEAD transplant by doctor branded "nuts"

a reply to: rickymouse

A HEAD of the times lol I see what you did .

a reply to: Aleister

I wonder if he likes his pizza topping just as cheesy

funbox

a reply to: PeterMcFly

I am saying that it is up to him, and in addition to that, however insane of a long shot that it might be for success at this time, it could potentially be a step towards the future. I don't understand why our culture respects some very unlikely life and death gambles but not others.

As for reconnecting the nervous system, I think that our prowess with computers and electronics might be able to supplement our somewhat slower progress with the brain/nerve system. In theory, I'm not sure there's any reason that now or in the near future someone couldn't fit two ends of a severed nervous system with wireless adapters capable of sending a signal from any node on one end to any node on the other and let a computer trial-and-error its way to the correct connections, using life support to get the patient through the autonomic chaos that would most likely cause. I could be way off, but I how will we know for sure if the people who would assume the risk of finding out aren't allowed to, even when they have little if anything to lose by it?

originally posted by: boymonkey74
So does this mean myself and a chimp could swap bodies? My head on the chimp body and the chimp head on mine.
It would be the best Superhero duo ever!.

Boymonkey and his trusty sidekick Monkeyboy?

One has the powers of super strength and tree-climbing ability... the other is just a really stupid ugly guy that yells a lot, flings feces, and masturbates in public.

Just how would it be possible to correctly align all of the nerve trunks in the spinal column of the head to the spinal column of the new body? Does medicine really have all of that mapped? Are the nerve trunks all in the same place in the spinal column for everyone? I mean, bending a finger and having the one next to it bend is one thing, but scratching your head and winding up kicking yourself in the arse is another.

I never thought that we really understood nerves well enough to pull something like this off, but who knows.

a reply to: wwe9112

Go to the gym

originally posted by: Agartha
a reply to: Bigburgh

Thank you for guiding me to this incredibly interesting thread, kind sir!

The disease is a type I (severe) spinal muscular atrophy that is evident during pregnancy, at birth or within the first couple of months of birth. The majority of children (95%) with WH disease die of respiratory failure before they are 2. Which makes this man a very special man indeed, as he is 30.

I read about Canavero before as we are from the same city (Turin, North Italy). He will cool down both donor and recipient's bodies before linking all major blood vessels with surgical tubes. He will then detach the head and cord of both bodies and attach the patient's one to the donor. He claims that by implanting electrodes he can provide electrical stimulation to the spinal cord to ensure new nerve connections. He also claims that these new nerve connections will restore the spinal cord functions allowing the recipient to walk within the next 12 months after the operation.

That is where I am doubtful. If the recipient's spinal cord is already diseased, can it be healed with a a new body with working nerve connection? (I will have to read more on it this evening to see what I can find).

I don't think the procedure will go ahead anyway. There's a big ethical issue here with terrible consequences for the future if it falls into the wrong hands. I don't think western countries will allow Dr. Canavero to perform the procedure. Most neurologists and surgeons are against it already.

I am against it. Like somebody mentioned here already, imagine the elites of our world living forever in new bodies. Or the next extreme type of cosmetic surgery where you really get a brand new you!

THAT'S where I think most of the road blocks are going to come in. According to the article Dr. Canavero needs 100+ extra doctors and nurses to assist in the surgery. Now sure, he may find a few who want to help to possibly make a name for themselves, or just want to help with a cool operation, but there will probably be quite a few who won't want to be part of that operation because if anything goes wrong, they don't want to be known worldwide as the 'freak' doctors.

Now I can see raising the $7.5 million easily just by going to the rich and fundraising. You just have to go about the right way and they'll be practically throwing money at the doctor!

a reply to: charlyv

I'm pretty sure we couldn't hard-wire it yet, and even if we had the basic understanding I'm not sure we could do it very well in practice. That's what I like about the idea of using a wireless setup that can reconfigure the connections as many times as required without going back in, though even that still presents the question of whether or not we can get everything connected properly to anything once we've eliminated the question of hooking it up to the right thing.

originally posted by: boymonkey74
So does this mean myself and a chimp could swap bodies? My head on the chimp body and the chimp head on mine.
It would be the best Superhero duo ever!.

You can start a comic book! Who's the side kick? Your head/chimp body? Or your body/chimp head? Remember smarter one has to be in control. So I guess, Chimp head?

ok i was trying to think of a wonderful pun to post in this thread but nothing i could come up with was funnier than the actual concept.

originally posted by: donktheclown

will another body "waste away"?

a reply to: Anyafaj

I don't think it matters.

The new body will reject his head as it (the new body) has an identity as well, and I'm sure "it" knows the new head doesn't belong...JMO

Certainly a possibility. I suspect he won't survive long, but maybe some of the advances or mistakes of the surgery can help in the future with other surgeries.

originally posted by: Anyafaj


Certainly a possibility. I suspect he won't survive long, but maybe some of the advances or mistakes of the surgery can help in the future with other surgeries.

That's my point, too. Doctors didn't perfect heart transplants with the first attempt.

It seems to me that simply keeping the brain/head alive with machines would be easier than attempting to transplant it on another body. I'm personally looking forward to the day when we can have our head installed into a robocop-style apparatus.

a reply to: Anyafaj
Interesting post. What concerns me, is where
are they going to get this healthy body from?

Rebel 5

Why does everyone keep calling it suicide?
A last-ditch-effort is more fitting.

I doubt he's looking at it like, yeah, I'm definitely gonna die.
Sure, he probably knows it's extremely risky, but if there's even a small chance of it working, why not?

And to everyone against it, would the human race be as advanced as we are now without taking any risks?

a reply to: Lurkenstein

Exactly!

At some point somebody had the idea, "hey, if you're in a crashing airplane, maybe you should jump out of the airplane and have a thing on your back that uses the resistance of the air to assemble a new set of wings for you out of some cord and cloth, and does so in less time than it takes to fall to your death. Even if that doesn't work, you're still almost sure to land on something softer and less likely to kill you than a burning airplane, so you've got nothing to lose".

Stupid idea, I know, the guy should have been thrown in jail for giving people false hope and tinkering with their mode of death in hopes of making a profit. But he wasn't thrown in jail, so parachutes, and now you can pay to jump out of an airplane and if anybody said you must have a deathwish and it should be illegal they'd just sound like a coward.

a reply to: Anyafaj

Any idea what happened to the Monkey who's head he apparent transplanted in the 70s? Did it survive the initial procedure, and if so what happened afterwards?

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: Anyafaj

Any idea what happened to the Monkey who's head he apparent transplanted in the 70s? Did it survive the initial procedure, and if so what happened afterwards?

From the article, towards the end,

In 1970 Dr Robert White transplanted the head of one monkey onto the body of another at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

The monkey died after eight days because the body rejected the head. The monkey was unable to breathe on its own. The animal could not move because the spinal cord were not connected.

Dr Batjer says White's research does not provide evidence that a human head transplant can work.

He told CNN: 'It's a 45-year-old reference in a primate and there is no evidence that the spinal cord was anastomosed functionally.'

Hopefully this doctor WILL be able to connect the spinal cord correctly so this man can breath and move about. But we shall see.

can you imagine how parents who have lost a child to this must feel now? If only they had kept the child alive a little longer so medical science could have advanced further and if only they had the money.

but it's only for the deserving and the rich..all these wonderful medical advances, aren't they.

Even though this seems totally wacky and still in the domain of science-fiction, if they can somehow pull this off - it might be revolutionary in dealing with stuff such as spinal cord injuries. If it's proven possible that a brain stem can be attached to a foreign body and made functional, then being able to re-attach a brain stem to its own body would seemingly work even better.

a reply to: infolurker

but brains age too