World’s first head transplant patient schedules procedure for 2017

A man set to become the world’s first head transplant patient has scheduled the procedure for December 2017. 30 year old Valery Spiridonov was diagnosed with a genetic muscle-wasting condition called Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, and volunteered for the procedure despite the risks involved, Central European News (CEN) reported.

“When I realized that I could participate in something really big and important, I had no doubt left in my mind and started to work in this direction,” Spiridonov, a Russian computer scientist, told CEN. “The only thing I feel is the sense of pleasant impatience, like I have been preparing for something important all my life and it is starting to happen.”

Dr. Sergio Canavero, an Italian neurosurgeon, will perform the procedure on Spiridonov. The procedure is expected to last up to 36 hours, and it will require Spiridonov’s head to be cooled as well as the donor’s body to extend the period during which the cells can survive without oxygen.

“According to Canavero’s calculations, if everything goes to plan, two years is the time frame needed to verify all scientific calculations and plan the procedure’s details,” Spiridonov. “It isn’t a race. No doubt, the surgery will be done once the doctor and the experts are 99 percent sure of its success.”

Spiridonov joked that first thing he plans to do after the procedure is go on a vacation.

“But on a serious note, this operation is aimed at restoring independence of severely disabled people. Once I get it back I’ll see what the life of a healthier person looks like,” he said.

According to the freed medical dictionary: Werdnig-Hoffmann disease is a geneticdisorder beginning in infancy or youngchildhood, characterized by progressiveatrophy of the skeletal muscle resulting fromdegeneration of the cells in the anteriorhorn of the spinal cord and the motor nucleiin the brainstem.

Onset occurs within the first year of life,with the condition usually apparent at birth.Symptoms include congenital hypotonia;absence of stretch reflexes; flaccidparalysis, especially of the trunk and limbs;lack of sucking ability; fasciculations of thetongue and sometimes of other muscles; andoften, dysphagia. Treatment is symptomatic,and death generally occurs in earlychildhood, often from respiratorycomplications.

The condition is transmitted as anautosomal-recessive trait and occurs morefrequently in siblings than in successivegenerations.