A man with a fatal medical condition has spoken exclusively to MailOnline about how he is set to become the first person to undergo a head transplant and hopes it could be as soon as next year.Dr. Spiridonov suffers from Werdnig–Hoffmann disease, a rare genetic disorder that wastes the body but leaves the head and mind intact. From the wiki link above:Valery Spiridonov says he is ready to put his trust in controversial surgeon Dr Sergio Canavero who claims he can cut off his head and attach it to a healthy body.
Mr Spiridonov, 30, a computer scientist from Russia, said: 'My decision is final and I do not plan to change my mind.'
The severe form manifests in the first months of life, usually with a quick and unexpected onset ("floppy baby syndrome"). Rapid motor neuron death causes inefficiency of the major bodily organs - especially of the respiratory system - and pneumonia-induced respiratory failure is the most frequent cause of death. Babies diagnosed with SMA type I do not generally live past two years of age, with death occurring as early as within weeks in the most severe cases (sometimes termed SMA type 0). With proper respiratory support, those with milder SMA type I phenotypes, which account for around 10% of SMA I cases, are known to live into adolescence and adulthood.The brave and desperate Doctor Spiridonov is one of the rare ones and he's had enough. Rather than die a certain death, he hopes to become the first known human test subject for the procedure. Clearly, this is controversial, but there are others out there desperate to volunteer.
The surgeon said he has received many emails and letters from people seeking the procedure. Dr Canavero has named the procedure HEAVEN, an acronym for head anastomosis venture.AANOS isn't endorsing this, but they are giving him a platform to air his thesis and search for collaborators. He estimates 150 medical professionals will need to be on hand to make it happen.Anastomosis involves the surgical connecting of two parts. The new body would come from a transplant donor who is brain dead but otherwise healthy.
He will present his plans at the annual conference of the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopedic Surgeons (AANOS) in June. He aims to perform the transplant in 2017.
For his part, Dr. Spiridonov is naturally scared but remains hopeful and philosophical, as well as scientifically curious.
"Am I afraid? Yes, of course I am," he said. "But it is not just very scary, but also very interesting.As well, others are scared for him. A piece in ScienceAlert put it this way in their headline:“But you have to understand that I don’t really have many choices.
"If I don’t try this chance my fate will be very sad. With every year my state is getting worse.”
World’s first head transplant volunteer could experience something "worse than death”
And what could that something worse be?
"I would not wish this on anyone," said Dr Hunt Batjer, president elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons. "I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death."Here is that creepy TedTalkFrom speaking to several medical experts, Hootan has pin-pointed a problem that even the most perfectly performed head transplant procedure cannot mitigate - we have literally no idea what this will do to Spiridonov’s mind. There’s no telling what the transplant - and all the new connections and foreign chemicals that his head and brain will have to suddenly deal with - will do to Spiridonov’s psyche, but as Hootan puts it rather chillingly, it "could result in a hitherto never experienced level and quality of insanity".
This is actually happening, and we're terrified. Also, I’ve suddenly got a great idea for a movie, and judging from the creepy performance below, Canavero could pretty much be cast as himself: