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

a reply to: The Vagabond

A wireless setup would be awesome. Just imagine having a 100Gb connection with the body going out to work, using a wireless sensory camera, mic feed, and your head just chilling and watching tv.

That is a rather headstrong surgeon. And after all, how often does an organ donor, or body donor, get to die and then still get 'some head'? Unless he decides to 'change his mind'...
Ok, sorry, had to put in my 2 cents worth on the puns going on in here. I wasn't sure I should, but I decided to flip a coin to figure it out. Care to guess how it came out?

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: Spider879

There is a certain blood cancer, I believe, that when combined with the HIV cocktail, drastically reduces the viral load of the patient. The newly diagnosed cancer patient.

Maybe that's the one I'm thinking of!

a reply to: Anyafaj

And on the transverse, Herpes Simplex virus (the STD) has been shown to attack certain liver cancers and other organ cancers upon initial infection.

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: Anyafaj

Well, considering that the donor body would have entirely different DNA, no, it wouldn't have the disease. But his head still would. Not that it matters, though. The technology and surgical technique don't exist to even repair the severed spinal cord of a paraplegic. There's no way this surgeon is going to produce a healthy patient from 2 corpses. The donor body will never come to life, due to the lack of successful nerve impulses from the transplanted brain. And I highly doubt the surgeon will be able to perform the transplant quickly enough to avoid brain death, even if the body came back to life.

According to the article, the doctor is going to sever both heads at once, then connect the scientists head with the brain dead body, then put him in a coma for a month to "heal". Since the monkey barely lasted 8 days, I somehow doubt he'll survive the entire length of the coma, let alone wake up from it. I hope he does, but sadly, I don't have my hopes up.

originally posted by: Volund


Yes. By undergoing chemo and destroying all the patients immune system bone marrow... the new bone marrow is taken from a doner with the genetic immunity to HIV. The new cells from the doner replicate and replace the original immune system thereby making the patient immune to HIV. The patient afterwards is immune. This is a proven fact and the patient is referred to as the Berlin Patient [off the top of my head]. Big Pharma does not like this [I assume]. Insurance companies do not like this because the procedure is about $150,000.

Now... as for the full body transplant... this opens a big can of worms because once we master the technique (and no doubt eventually we will) people with the most money will be farming out [or cloning] bodies and the medical black market of Kosovo will look like nothing.

Imagine this....

I thought there was a story I read a while back about a cure for a disease with HIV. Thanks for helping me out.

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: hutch622

Well, since the immune cells of the body are mostly generated in the body, it would reject the head.

Supposedly they are going to dose the dickens out of him with immunosuppressant's. I somehow don't think there are enough on the planet for this kind of operation, but we'll see.

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: muse7

The body donor would be a corpse. Only the patient brain death would matter. But it would happen.

Yah, supposedly the patient would be brain dead. He will probably be an organ donor, so my guess, either this person previously agreed to donate their body to science, like I've been thinking of, or, just a regular everyday organ donor.

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: violet

Perhaps the soul is just the transubstantiated portion of the consciousness/personality. Or vise versa.

I think it would be quite interesting if he has his soul, and the personality, and eventually the soul, of the new body. Some transplant patients will sometimes take on some of the personality of the owner of the organ. It would be an interesting conundrum, for example, if an atheist received a Christian brain dead body, or vice versa, or Hindu, or whatever religion, and all of a sudden, should they survive, begin wanting to explore that religion because the body is telling them to explore that religion. Some transplant recipients will acquire tastes of food, music, so many things, no longer like things she used to like. I think it would be interesting when we bring the entire body into play.

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: big_BHOY

The problem with stem cells is the rejection factor. Who's stem cells would they use? Either the patient or the donor cells would reject the connection with the other.

Don't they normally get stem cells from the umbilical cord blood? Or can there be other places they can get stem cells from? Just curious?

originally posted by: pfishy
a reply to: Anyafaj

And on the transverse, Herpes Simplex virus (the STD) has been shown to attack certain liver cancers and other organ cancers upon initial infection.

Very interesting! I wonder what other illnesses can "cure" diseases.

a reply to: pfishy

I was thinking the head would probably still be attached, just there would be no hardwired reconnection of the spinal cord, but a couple miniature routers instead.

But yeah I think I'd really enjoy never having to look a cashier in the eye again... and fast food workers couldn't possibly spit in your food... so unless you are unlikeable on that unthinkable next level you might be safe.

originally posted by: charlyv
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?

There have been amazing advances in neurosurgery but I am not sure this is yet possible.

I do remember reading about this over at either Humanity+ hplusmagazine.com... or Singularity University singularityhub.com...

a reply to: hutch622

Yeah, he really made a great head start there.

a reply to: Anyafaj

Well, there's a couple of sources for stem cells, and there's also techniques to 'convert' adult stem cells into a form usable for this application. But, the question remains, how would they overcome the problem with the stem cells of the body rejecting the head and vise versa.

It's his life, frankly I think he's crazy but that's up to him.

If it does succeed, he will be forever known as Frankenstein and a freak. Again, that is his call.

Most body part transfers are hampered by one thing, GENETIC COMPATIBILITY.

Bloody type matching is only part of it, there is the genetic side, the body will fight itself to death treating it as a foreign part.

originally posted by: bullcat
It's his life, frankly I think he's crazy but that's up to him.

If it does succeed, he will be forever known as Frankenstein and a freak. Again, that is his call.

Most body part transfers are hampered by one thing, GENETIC COMPATIBILITY.

Bloody type matching is only part of it, there is the genetic side, the body will fight itself to death treating it as a foreign part.

Which is why all of those heart, kidney, liver, and face transplants fail right?

maybe the Doctor could study conjoined twins and see how two heads work on one body.

originally posted by: JadeStar

originally posted by: charlyv
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?

There have been amazing advances in neurosurgery but I am not sure this is yet possible.

I do remember reading about this over at either Humanity+ hplusmagazine.com... or Singularity University singularityhub.com...

That is what really concerns me. Without the ultimate knowledge to accomplish that, why bother with the whole procedure?

Dr. Cannavaro is now claiming he can do this part of the surgery in UNDER an HOUR!!


Just attaching the head to the donor body part. He claims other doctors will have to come in and do their part and switch on and off to prevent from getting tired. He also claims if Russia and Italy refuse to let him do the surgery and claim it is illegal, he will do it in China and has prepared by learning Chinese for the occasion. Also the patient has already warned his family he may die in this operation and they support him 100%. He told them sometimes there are 300 failures before there is success on the 301 try.

Dr. Cannavaro recognizes rich people will try this surgery to attach a youthful body to try and stay young if he is successful and says he may already have investors lined up for this. Some willing to be named, some willing to stay silent. Those willing to be named, Cannavaro will name in the press, the good doctor has no shame in outing them. He said the same went for those will be willing to go under the knife to stay young.

Asked by newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on the cost of the first surgery, he replied: 'Do you love football? I hate it. Nonetheless, you have slackers who meaninglessly stroll around the pitch and are paid $20-30 million a year.

'I need $15 million. It's the price for happiness and health for a lot of people. But sponsors prefer spending money on healthy boneheads who can't kick a ball.'

Asked if such surgery could be used for 'elderly billionaires to get a young body', he claimed he had interest from tycoons seeking to extend their lives.

'You bet - there are a few funds working on prolonging life expectancy, and they are well-funded.

'These people came to me and said, "here is the money, but we want our participation to stay secret".

'However, I want everything to be transparent. Doing the surgery in a secret place on a secret island is not my cup of tea, to be honest.'

'I am prepared for any nicknames, because it sounds cool and will help to sell more newspapers.

'But I am very conservative when it comes to funding.

'When Bill Gates or Dmitry Itskov (a Russian millionaire supporting the research in artificial intelligence) fund my project, I'll come to the cameras with the receipt and say, "this person supported my initiative".'

He went on: 'I know what I'm for and am prepared for it. I already have an entire army of enemies.

'But even if I fail with the project, it'll be a lot easier for those who carry on after me.'

He admitted that 'the final goal is immortality' and brushed aside objections from churches.

'I'm not a Catholic and not even a Christian. But I respect other points of view. And I will listen to what the Orthodox church has to say. But this church has one point of view, and the Catholic - another.'

He claims a senior Catholic figure has said he sees no objections to the surgery, he said, adding: 'In Asia and China, the religious authorities also haven't shown any discontent about that. I don't think the religious aspect will play a huge role.

Again, I wish Valery all the success in his surgery, if Cannavaro does it. However with it being the first of it's kind the odds of it being successful immediately are very slim.