Doctor predicts first human HEAD transplant could happen within two years

A RADICAL surgeon wants to complete the world’s first Frankenstein-style head transplant – and claims someone would be able to speak with the same voice and walk with their new body within a year of the op.

Italian Sergio Canavero thinks the £7.5million body swap could be done in just two years’ time.

It would initially be used to give a new lease of life to paralysed people and those with spinal cord injuries, as well as helping to extend the lives of people with muscle degeneration or advanced cancer.

Canavero’s technique involves attaching a person’s head onto a donor body.

Both the head and the body would be cooled at the start of the procedure to extend the time that cells can survive without oxygen.

Then major blood vessels in the neck would be attached to the donor body using tiny tubes, with the spinal cord fused together with a chemical called polyethylene glycol, which encourages fat membranes to mesh.

So not exactly like Frankenstein – where scientist Victor Frankenstein creates his monster using different transplanted body parts.

Or even like Toy Story, where nuisance bully kid-next-door Sid “operates” on his victim toys, transplanting dolls heads onto Meccano legs.

Though we imagine the operating theatre could look a bit like this…

In real life, after the ground-breaking operation, the person would be put into a coma for about a month to prevent them from moving while they heal.

The surgeon told New Scientist about his heady project, which he will formally unveil at a conference in June.

“If society doesn’t want it, I won’t do it,” Canavero said.

“But if people don’t want it, in the US or Europe, that doesn’t mean it won’t be done somewhere else.

“I’m trying to go about this the right way, but before going to the moon, you want to make sure people will follow you.”

The first successful head transplant using monkeys was carried out in 1970 in the US, but the monkey only survived for nine days because its immune system rejected the new head.

In 2005, Isabelle Dinoire became the the first person in the world to undergo a partial face transplant, after her Labrador retriever chewed her face off when she overdosed on sleeping pills.

Yesterday it was revealed three men have become the first in the world to get bionic hands that they can control with their minds.

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/427758/Doctor-first-human-head-transplant-two-years

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