Successful human head transplant. Head transplant to a new body

In China, a head was transplanted from one dead person to another for the first time. Initially, it was planned that the head of Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov would be transplanted onto the donor’s body, but the story had a sad ending. The surgeon refused to operate on a patient from Russia.

On Friday, November 17, the world's first human head transplant took place in China. True, the head was transplanted from one dead body to another.

The point of such a transplant was to successfully connect the spinal cord, nerves and blood vessels. And as surgeon Sergio Canavero assured, he succeeded quite successfully. Previously, it was planned to transplant the head of Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov. But this story ended sadly - the operation was cancelled.

The beginning of the story

Let us recall that at the beginning of 2015, Italian doctor Sergio Canavero announced that he was ready to transplant a head from a living volunteer onto a donor body. Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov saw this information and could not help but respond. The fact is that Spiridonov suffers from a congenital disease - Werdnig-Hoffman syndrome. Because of this, his back muscles have almost completely atrophied. That is, the 32-year-old guy is practically immobilized, and over time this situation gets worse. The surgeon met with Valery personally and became convinced of the sincerity of his intentions and his willingness to take risks.

Fact! Despite the fact that Valery practically cannot move without the help of a wheelchair, he leads an active life. The guy has been working since he was 16 years old, he is a successful programmer. Travels a lot, constantly communicates with interesting people. Therefore, as he himself said in an interview, you should not think that he wants to die in this way.

The operation was scheduled for December 2017. The doctor and patient had no doubt that finding a donor would be difficult. But it is possible, because every day people get into fatal car accidents, and some are sentenced to death. It was among them that it was planned to find a donor body.

However, these plans never came to fruition. The fact is that the sponsor of the operation, the Chinese Government, insists that the patient be a citizen of this country. In addition, it is important that the donor is the same race as the patient. It is not possible to transplant Spiridonov's head onto the Chinese body. That is why all preparations for the operation had to be frozen. And it’s difficult to say whether Spiridonov will be operated on in the future.

The essence of the operation

Previously, Sergio conducted similar successful experiments only on mice. He transplanted the head from one mouse to another. But the operation to transplant the head of a monkey was unsuccessful. Firstly, the spinal cord was not connected, only blood vessels. Secondly, the animal then experienced severe suffering, and doctors had to euthanize it after 20 hours. This is why many scientists are horrified by what Ganavero is planning to do.

The surgeon himself is very optimistic. He states that he will definitely do similar operations again. In addition, in the future he plans to transplant the brain of an elderly person into the body of a young donor. This means, according to him, it will be possible to defeat death.

This is interesting! It was previously stated that the operation to transplant a living human head would last 36 hours. Afterwards, the patient must be placed in an artificial coma for 4 weeks. And after this time, he will be injected with strong immunosuppressants to prevent his body from rejecting his head.

Russian scientists also have grandiose plans in this direction. By 2025, they want to learn how to transplant a human brain into a robot body. This will help make a significant breakthrough in the field of science.

And in the story with the Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov, everything is quite sad. The promised head transplant has not yet taken place. Although this may not be the end yet.

When Dr. Canavero announced his grandiose project two years ago, the news shocked the scientific world and, of course, the project was criticized. Despite the skepticism of many scientists and surgeons, the Heaven project attracted the interest of thousands and thousands of physicians who wrote to the Italian scientist.

The first human head transplant will take place in China. The team of specialists will be led by Chinese doctor Ren Xiaoping, assisted by Sergio Canavero. Since the project will be funded by the Chinese government, the patient will be a Chinese citizen, and not Russian Valery Spiridonov, as previously planned.

Sputnik Italia learned from Sergio Canavero what results were achieved within the framework of this fascinating, but ethically ambiguous project:

- Please tell us at what stage the Heaven project is?

“In September, we published our first “proof of principle” research in Korea, conducted in collaboration with Rice University in Texas. Research has shown that mice whose spinal cords were cut, as is done in a head transplant, regained the ability to walk. These operations use an improved version of polyethylene glycol (PEG), so that 24 hours after surgery, nerve impulses begin to pass through the incision site again. A dog whose spinal cord was cut and repaired with PEG was able to run again 3 weeks after surgery.

These were early studies, and critics said we didn't have enough statistics. We were told that nerve impulses pass (through the incision site), but we had to prove that nerve fibers reappear at the incision site. In January, we published the first work that used a method for studying tissues and cells called immunohistochemistry. Using this method, we have proven that nerve fibers grow at the site of the incision.

-And what were the next steps?

To obtain sufficient statistical data, we used large rats for further research. The technique used was diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which allows you to see the fibers without the need to kill the animals. The rats were divided into two groups: the first group received placebo during surgery, and the second group received PEG. A month later, the rats from the second group could move, but the rats from the first group could not. Later we conducted the same experiment on dogs, and the result was similar. That is, we can now say that mice, rats and dogs with a severed spinal cord can regain the ability to move.

- And the first country in the world where surgery will be performed on humans will be China?

— Yes, the Chinese government wants a Chinese specialist to lead the transplant team of doctors. Therefore, in April we announced that, according to the law of the country, I would assist the Chinese neurosurgeon Xiaoping Ren and his team. It won't be long now, and in October you will learn sensational news.

Why can’t the first person be the Russian Valery Spiridonov, who was the first to offer himself for your operation?

— Here you touched on the main essence of my appeal to Russia. I want to emphasize that in Russia there are surgeons capable of performing such an operation, there is a specially equipped hospital, and there is the necessary money. But at the same time, when representatives of very wealthy Russians, billionaires, contacted me, they emphasized their interest in investing in my project, but not in charity. So now I have lost hope of convincing Russian investors to help me find a donor for a transplant that will save Valery Spiridonov. And I appeal to the Russians: Valery, a Russian citizen, will only be saved by an operation in Russia. China, naturally, will save the Chinese, besides Valery is a representative of the white race, and he cannot be transplanted with the body of a Chinese so as not to cause negative psychological reactions.

I officially appeal to the Russian authorities and the Russian people to help me save the Russian citizen Valery Spiridonov. I am ready to assist a team of Russian surgeons during an operation in Moscow. If the authorities are unwilling to intervene, there is another option - crowdfunding. I ask 145 million Russian citizens for financial assistance. There is no other way to save Valery. I ask the Russian people to help save my compatriot. Let Russia, where the great neurosurgeon Surgeon Demikhov began his operations on animal head transplants in the last century, carry out this operation and begin a new era."

31-year-old Valery Spiridonov, confined to a wheelchair with an incurable illness, will become the first patient in the world to undergo a head transplant. Despite the risk, the Russian is ready to go under the surgeon’s knife to get a new, healthy body.

Wheelchair-bound Russian programmer Valery Spiridonov has announced that he will undergo a head transplant next year. The operation will be performed by Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero. Despite the fact that Canavero has a controversial reputation in the scientific world, Spiridonov is ready to put his body and his own life in his hands. Neither the doctor nor his patient have yet disclosed the details of the operation. According to Spiridonov, Canavero will talk in more detail about the fantastic procedure in September. However, it is already known: the operation, which the entire scientific world is excitedly awaiting, will take place in December 2017.

Valery Spiridonov voluntarily agreed to become an experimental patient for Dr. Canavero - the first on whom the doctor will test his theories. He still has no other hope of finding a healthy body. Valery suffers from spinal muscular amyotrophy, also known as Werdnig-Hoffmann syndrome. With this disease, the patient's muscles fail and he experiences difficulty breathing and swallowing. The disease is incurable and only progresses over the years.

Most patients with Werdnig-Hoffman syndrome die in the first years of life. Valery was among the lucky 10% who were lucky enough to live to adulthood. But his condition is worsening every day. Valery says that he dreams of getting a new body before the disease kills him. According to him, his family fully supports him.

“I perfectly understand all the risks of such an operation. There are many of them,” says Valery. “We cannot even imagine exactly what could go wrong. But, I’m afraid, I will not live to see the day when such an operation is performed on someone something else."

It is assumed that the healthy body of a donor who will be diagnosed as brain dead will be used for the operation. According to Dr. Canavero, the operation will last 36 hours and will be performed in one of the most modern operating rooms in the world. The procedure will cost approximately $18.5 million. According to the doctor, all the methods and technologies necessary for such an intervention already exist.

During the operation, the spinal cord will be cut simultaneously for the donor and the patient. Spiridonov's head will then be aligned with the donor's body and connected with what Canavero calls the "magic ingredient" - an adhesive called polyethylene glycol, which will connect the patient's and donor's spinal cords. Then the surgeon will sew together the muscles and blood vessels, and put Valery into an artificial coma for four weeks: after all, if the patient is conscious, with one awkward movement he can nullify all efforts.

According to the plan, after four weeks of coma, Spiridonov will wake up, already able to move independently and speak in his former voice. Powerful immunosuppressants will help avoid rejection of the transplanted body.

Dr. Canavero's opponents argue that he underestimates the complexity of the upcoming operation, especially in terms of connecting the patient's spinal cord to the donor. They call the Italian doctor's plan "pure fantasy." However, if successful, thousands of terminally ill and paralyzed patients around the world will have hope of a cure.

At his press conference, Spiridonov also presented to the public a wheelchair with an autopilot of his own design. According to him, he wants to help people with disabilities around the world and hopes that his project will be a good addition to Dr. Canavero's plan. Valery is also trying to help Canavero raise money for the operation by selling souvenir mugs and T-shirts.

The world's first head transplant was performed in 1970 by American transplantologist Robert White at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine clinic in Cleveland, connecting the head of one monkey to the body of another. After the operation, the monkey lived for eight days and died due to rejection of the new organ. For eight days she could not breathe or move on her own because the surgeon was unable to accurately connect the two parts of the spinal cord.

This topic began to appear and be widely voiced probably a couple of years ago, at the same time. Vladimir resident Valery Spiridonov said that he is ready to become the first patient of Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero and undergo a head transplant. Valery has been suffering from incurable Werdnig-Hoffman disease since childhood.

If at first it sounded vague and mostly with a desire to loudly declare oneself on both sides, now real actions, amounts, deadlines and possibilities are becoming more and more clearly visible. And now there is a date for the operation - December 2017.

Sergio Canavero, a former neurosurgeon from Turin, gave an interview to Libero Quotidiano and explained why he wants to participate in the risky experiment and how realistic these plans are.

As journalist Alessandro Milan notes, “After a two-hour interview, it remains unclear whether this is a visionary who in two years will make a revolutionary breakthrough in medicine, or a man who is obsessed with an idea that is doomed to failure from the very beginning.”

What do you say?

Sergio Canavero is aware of this and calmly accepts the most severe criticism addressed to him. The most important thing for him is to carry out the world's first head transplant operation to enable paralyzed people to walk again, giving them a new body. Canavero outlined all the details of his revolutionary project in medicine in his book “Il cervello immortale” (“The Brain is Immortal”) (published by Sperling & Kupfer).

L.Q.: Professor, do you know that they call you the new Professor Frankenstein?

S.K.: This is a great honor for me.

L.Q.: Really?

S.K.: Of course. This means that after 200 years we will finally be able to achieve the dream, and every time someone manages to turn a dream into reality, it is a huge success. Victor Frankenstein wanted to challenge nature itself, but when he realized the horror of what had happened, he tried to destroy the monster he had created. I also thought about the consequences of human head transplantation and looked for possible solutions to this problem. So it's a great honor for me to be compared to Frankenstein.

L.Q.: We will return to the solutions you found. Tell me, when did you first think about a head transplant?

S.K.: Still a child. When I was 8 years old, I watched the TV series “Medical Center”, and they showed cerebral angiography. I was simply mesmerized. At the age of 15, I read a special issue of the magazine “Scienze” (Science) dedicated to the brain, and at 17, about the experiment of Dr. White, who in the USA carried out an operation to transplant the head from one monkey to the body of another. Then an inspiration came to me, and I decided to devote myself to medicine.

L.Q.: When did you start to materialize your idea?

S.K.: In 1993, I came across articles written 30 years ago by the American neurosurgeon Freeman. He also looked for his own methods of treating paralysis. This convinced me that human head transplantation is quite possible.

L.Q.: When will the first human head transplant be performed?

S.K.: If everything goes as we planned, the world's first operation will be performed at Christmas 2017 in China.

L.Q.: The first patient to receive a new body will be, as planned, Valery Spiridonov?

S.K.: No, the Chinese project does not provide for Valery’s head transplant for obvious reasons. We cannot give him, white as snow, the body of a Chinese. At the moment, there are no patients ready for surgery yet.

L.Q.: Could you explain in general terms the essence of the operation?

S.K.: First, a suitable patient is determined from an immunological and physical point of view. Once a suitable donor has been found, you can proceed directly to the operation itself. The recipient and donor are brought into the operating room and placed on adjacent tables, at a distance of two meters. Two teams of surgeons work simultaneously. When everything is ready, both heads are cut off.

The donor's head is given to relatives for burial, and the recipient's head is transplanted onto a new body. However, before cutting, its head must be frozen at 15 °C. And only then was it transplanted.

(To cut the spinal cord, the surgeon will need a special knife that allows him to work with an accuracy of up to one millionth of a meter. Spiridonov's head will be temporarily frozen to prevent bleeding while the sections of the spinal cord are connected, and then attached to the new body. Some scientists warn that connecting a person's head to a new body can lead to "hitherto unknown levels of insanity." To prepare the patient for the new sensations, a team of programmers developed a virtual reality system.)

L.Q.: And how much will the operation cost?

S.K.: If we manage to carry out the operation in China, then its cost will be 15 million dollars. In Europe or the USA the cost increases to 100 million.

L.Q.: To listen to you, we are talking about the most ordinary operation. But, as you probably know, many neurosurgeons say that it is impossible to connect the recipient's bone marrow with the donor's bone marrow. In Italy you are subjected to the most merciless criticism.

S.K.: In Italy I was denied the operation, therefore, the opinion of the Italians does not matter to me. If you are not comfortable here, you are simply kicked out. Professor Sarr from the Mayo Clinic, a leading specialist and a true professional, spoke positively about the possibility of transplantation and the technique I used.

L.Q.: Listen, what happens if the patient dies after a head transplant?

S.K.: When Barnard performed his first heart transplant operation, his patient lived only 18 days, the second - for a year and a half. Every transplant has its share of risk. But before the operation, a very detailed plan is drawn up. In fact, we will perform the first head transplant two months before the operation in 2017 in China: we will conduct a trial head transplant on two brain-dead patients to hone our technique. This will serve as the final stage, our Apollo 10, before landing on the Moon with Apollo 11.

L.Q.: As for potential patients, who are they?

S.K.: For the most part, people are completely paralyzed.

L.Q.: And can you guarantee that the head transplant operation will give them a chance to walk again?

S.K.: Yes. I will tell you one name: Christopher Reeve (American theater, film and television actor, director, screenwriter, public figure). He gained worldwide fame after playing the role of Superman in the 1978 American film of the same name and its sequels. On May 27, 1995, he fell from a horse during a race in Virginia, breaking cervical vertebrae and becoming paralyzed. Doctors were unable to get the actor back on his feet, but saved his life by performing a unique operation. He was paralyzed from the shoulders down, could not breathe on his own, and could only speak with the help of a device inserted into his trachea. Doctors connected an electrical stimulator to the actor's paralyzed diaphragm, which caused contractions of the main respiratory muscle. Since then, he has devoted his life to rehabilitation therapy and, together with his wife, opened a center to teach paralyzed people how to live independently. Died of a heart attack on October 10, 2004). If Reeve were alive, we would cut out his spinal cord without damaging it and using a special technique, and then “glue” it to a new body so Reeve could walk again.

L.Q.: You are very confident in your abilities.

S.K.: Okay, let's assume that something goes wrong and the paralyzed patient will not be able to walk after the transplant. In this case, nothing is lost for science yet. When Edison was told, even before he succeeded in creating his first light bulb, “you tried 999 times and they all failed,” he replied, “It wasn’t a failure. It was just 999 wrong ways to make a light bulb." In science, everything is achieved by trial and error.

L.Q.: Yes, but in this case you will create another paralyzed, even more crippled patient, with the body of one person and the head of another person.

S.K.: I am 100% sure that he will be able to walk. When the Wright brothers created their first airplane, everyone said they were crazy.

L.Q.: Professor Canavero, what is your actual goal, why are you participating in the experiment?

S.K.: Until now, I always answered that “for the treatment of serious pathologies.” But in reality I have deeper motives.

L.Q.: Which ones exactly?

S.K.: I’ll explain. At 30, I was a materialist, even a reductionist. I, like many others, believed in the idea that “the brain produces consciousness.” In 1989, I watched the film Flatliners starring Julia Roberts. In it, medical students stopped their hearts with the intention of seeing the other world. This was a revelation for me. I had had near-death experiences for years and I said to myself, “Sure, it would be nice to do something like that.”

Just imagine: the moment when the head of the recipient patient has already been removed, but has not yet been transplanted onto a new body, is the moment of transition between life and death. With the help of a head transplant, I will not only be able to cure diseases that are still incurable, but also find out what happens after death, and thus solve the problem of consciousness.

L.Q.: I'm afraid I didn't quite understand you.

S.K.: I am convinced that consciousness is not generated by the brain, therefore, when a person dies, his consciousness continues to live. By performing a successful head transplant, I will be able to prove this fact scientifically. In this way, two things will be achieved: a step towards “immortality” and proof of the absolute uselessness of all religions.

L.Q.: The uselessness of religions?

S.K.: The main reason why we resort to religion is the fear of death. Religions, to reduce this fear, talk about the soul going to Heaven and require proof of faith. I will prove that consciousness continues to live after physical death, but I will do it on a scientific basis. If a brain transplanted into a new body can "tell" us what it saw during the transition, we will have evidence that consciousness is present at the time of this temporary death, even if the brain is not functioning. Consequently, the need for religion and faith to overcome the fear of death will disappear. In just twenty years, all religions will disappear.

L.Q.: As I understand it, you don’t believe in God?

S.K.: Yes, you are right, I am an atheist.

L.Q.: Aren’t you afraid that your technology could ultimately fall into the wrong hands, and some modern “Hitler” could thus ensure “immortality” for himself?

SK: This is an ethical dilemma that I've thought about a lot. I can't let this happen. That's why I launched the Nuovo mondo (New World) project.

L.Q.: What is its essence?

SK: It's based on Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. Since I am against the death penalty and believe that prisons are not needed in modern society, the only way to stop a potential psychopath is to “reprogram” his brain. Society, in addition to caring about prolonging life through head transplants, should think about controlling the brains of potential criminals using neurostimulation methods, which I have been working on for many years. In my opinion, the only way to stop evil is to control human behavior in advance.

In fact, you don't need to think that these are just words. At the end of 2016, Sergio Canavero moved one step closer to transplanting a human head. The doctor operated on the dog and the mouse.

He did not completely separate the heads from the bodies, but only cut the spine. The specialist managed to restore thousands of damaged neurons using polyethylene glycol. This is a food additive that is used in milk production. The result stunned even the surgeon himself. Within seven days the dog began to stand on its paws, and three weeks later it was already running and feeling great. The mouse recovered even faster.

Sergio Canavero, neurosurgeon: “After an operation that should have been fatal for the animals, we see amazing results. The mouse recovered within 24 hours - with almost the entire set of neurophysiological functions. This is unprecedented. This is amazing, I would even call it a miracle.”

However, many experts do not share Canavero’s enthusiasm. Skeptics say the experiment needs to be done more carefully. But the surgeon himself is confident that he is on the way to a sensation.

Here's another opinion:
Academician Sergei Gauthier, director of the Federal Scientific Center for Transplantology and Artificial Organs named after Shumakov, chief transplantologist of the Russian Federation:

The idea itself is attractive, as it makes it possible to preserve the human personality in the event of various disasters, serious illnesses of the body that doom a person to death. It seems to me that if you carefully think through the course of the operation, all its details and nuances, and calculate the possible risks, then it is technically feasible. In the mid-50s, our great compatriot Vladimir Demikhov proved in experiments on dogs that a head transplant is practically possible. He proved the possibility of restoring cerebral circulation in a transplanted head and preserving brain viability. Here you can learn more about this experiment -