Why Valery Spiridonov wants his head cut off for head transplant

DR SERGIO Canavero is pretty confident he can transplant a Russian man’s head onto a different body. But everyone else isn’t so sure.

Twist in head transplant ambition?

A DISABLED man, hoping to be the first in the world to have his entire head transplanted, has met with surgeons.

Russian Valery Spiridonov has a muscle-wasting disease called spinal muscular atrophy.

Mr Spiridonov said he was prepared to let an Italian neurosurgeon, who claims he can transplant an entire head, do the procedure in the name of science Sky Newsreports.

The surgeon, Dr Sergio Canavero, has been making headlines globally for his claims he can do the procedure, but has called in the US to help make it happen.

So yesterday the American Academy of Neurological and Orthopaedic Surgeons and International College of Surgeons invited Dr Canavero to speak at their meeting in Annapolis.

Dr Canavero’s transplant strategy is to cool the body so the head has more time to survive. He would then cut some of the neck and join the blood vessels before transplanting the entire head.

He would use polyethylene glyco on the ends of the spinal cord to encourage nerve cells to stick.

The Russian man to get full body transplant. An Italian surgeon is set to become the first in the world to transplant a human head onto a donor body. He pioneering operation by Dr Sergio Canavero is to be carried out on a 30-year-old computer scientist who is suffering from a fatal muscle wasting disease who said he was forced to go ahead with it as he has 'no other choice'. Pic: AUSTRALSCOPE

But some believe the entire thing could be an elaborate hoax and medical experts have been casting doubts on the claims it is possible, NBC News reports.

At the Academy meeting, NBC reported Dr Canavero struggled with his presentation while Spiridonov sat to the side in a motorised chair looking puzzled.

Dr Canavero also compared himself to Frankenstein.

Dr Raymond Dieter, a cardiothoracic surgeon from Glen Ellyn, Illinois told NBC it was highly unlikely the transplant would be possible.

“Technically, we can cut your head off. We can attach the skin. We can hook up the arteries. We can hook up the nerves. But can you hook up the brain and spinal tissue?” he said.

“In three to five minutes, if we don’t have circulation back to your brain, you’re dead,”

“When you look inside the skull, it’s mush.”

Mr Spiridonov, a computer scientist, previously told the Daily Mail he was prepared to go through with the surgery but not at any cost.

“I am not going crazy here and rushing to cut off my head, believe me,” Spiridonov

“The surgery will take place only when all believe that the success is 99 per cent possible.”

The first attempted head transplant happened in 1954 according to New Scientist.

A soviet surgeon, Vladimir Demikhov, attempted swap dog’s heads but the dogs didn’t survive for more than a few days.