An Italian neurosurgeon and Rice University graduate student are proceeding with plans to conduct the world’s first head transplant.
A Russian man with terminal muscular dystrophy volunteered his head for the procedure. The plan entails severing his spinal cord and then reattaching it to a recently deceased person.
“A fresh cadaver might act as a proxy for a live subject as long as a window of opportunity is respected,” lead neurosurgeon on the project Sergio Canavero wrote in September. Canavero and his colleagues previously revealed, with dogs, that it is possible to reattach the spinal cord to a corpse. The ultimate goal of the surgery is to find a technique to fuse spinal cords, possibly allowing paralyzed individuals to control a body again.
“The idea is you very carefully take the head off, we cool it down, and then you reconnect it,” graduate student William Sikkema told Canadian media Thursday. “The hardest thing is reconnecting the spinal cord, and that’s where my involvement is.”
The recipient body of the new head will be placed in a coma while the spinal cord fusion heals. Throughout the coma the patient will be electrically stimulated to slowly build pathways between the new brain and the body. Eventually, doctors believe the patient will be able to retain full motor function over the body, and feel their face.
Follow Saagar Enjeti on Twitter
Send tips to saagar@dailycallernewsfoundation.org
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.