For this week, I decided to pick out a fascinating article in Medical News Today (MNT) and evaluate it. As you may well know, there are many people around the world that are suffering from paralysis whether it be from a serious injury, illness, or genetic condition. They are living in a world where they are constantly limited by their wheelchair and unable to live a normal life. So far, scientists haven’t found a way to cure paralysis; however, Italian neuroscientist Dr. Sergio Canavero thinks he has finally come up with the perfect cure, a head transplant.
In his project he calls HEAVEN-GEMINI, Dr. Canavero hopes to perform the world’s first head transplant in 2017 on 30 year old Valeri Spirindonov. The procedure is estimated to cost $11 million and take approximately 36 hours for 150 surgeons and nurses to complete. "We're going to remove one head under deep hypothermia and reinstall it on a new body" Dr. Canavero told MNT. The recipient’s head and donor body will be in hypothermia mode for 45 minutes so as to prevent any neurological damages that may be caused by deprivation of oxygen. The hardest part of the whole process is spinal cord fusion or attaching the head to the donor’s body. If the surgery is successful, the patient will then be placed in a coma for 3-4 weeks to ensure minimal neck movement and allowing time for “the new nerve connections to fuse together”.
Valeri Spirindonov will be the first human in history to undergo head transplant surgery
Dr. Canavero is following in the footsteps of Dr. White who had previously did a head transplant on a monkey (which actually worked surprisingly for a while but then the monkey died nine days later because the immune system rejected the head). I don’t know if Dr. Canavero will be able to pull this off because this procedure is very different from the normal heart or kidney implants. Many scientists certainly agree that this project will not be successful, many even calling Dr. Canavero “nuts”. I am sceptical about the success of this procedure but I guess we will have to wait and see. If it is a success, it will certainly transform the lives of people in paralysis or even transgenders.
Sources:
Whiteman, Honor. "The First Human Head Transplant: 'it Will Be a Success'" Medical News Today.
MediLexicon International, 15 Oct. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
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