Russian boffin ready to undergo world's first full head transplant

LONDON. KAZINFORM - A patient with a fatal medical condition has volunteered to become the first person in the world to undergo a complete head transplant and hopes it could be as soon as next year.

Valery Spiridonov, 30, says he is prepared to be operated on by surgeon Sergio Canavero who claims he can remove a head and attach it to a healthy body. Russian computer scientist Spiridonov, 30, who suffers a rare genetic disorder called Werdnig-Hoffman disease, said: "My decision is final and I do not plan to change my mind. He says he wants the chance of a new body before he dies, say press reports. "Am I afraid? Yes, of course I am. But it is not just very scary, but also very interesting," said Spiridonov from his home in Vladimir, a city 200 km from Moscow. "But you have to understand that I don't really have many choices," he said. "If I don't try this chance, my fate will be very sad. With every year my state is getting worse." Dr. Canavero and Spiridonov have talked via Skype and the doctor has not reviewed his medical records. Dr. Canavero has named the procedure HEAVEN, which is an acronym for head anastomosis venture. Anastomosis involves the surgical connecting of two parts. He insists all the necessary techniques already exist to transplant a head onto a donor body. In 1970, Dr. Robert White transplanted the head of one monkey onto the body of another at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. The monkey died after eight days because the body rejected the head. The monkey was unable to breathe on its own. The animal could not move because the spinal cord were not connected. Source: Arab News