Seems like the Chinese are willing to let a mad Italian doctor perform a whole head transplant.

Can’t see it working to be fair but it does strike of the somewhat of the Nazi medical experiments…

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/head-transplant-team-selected-for-controversial-operation-that-will-go-ahead-in-2017-10498627.html

😯

😯 plus one million!!

Should I be worried that the story is in the ‘life style’ section of their site?

Isn’t it going to be a body transplant rather than a head transplant?
I mean, the new frankensteins persons conciousness will be determined by the brain right? Head will be pretty pissed off if they give it the body of a biffer.

Glue and stitches 😯 why not get some Rapesco staples and go mad.

I would politely suggest that if this had even a tiny chance of being successful then we would already be using the techniques to help people spinal injuries. Right now, we don’t know how to help repair a spinal cord in a person with their own head, let alone someone else’s.

glue and stitches

Wot no cranial screwtop method?

Could be a fate considerably worse than death, according to another top surgeon.

Yikes.

. Right now, we don’t know how to help repair a spinal cord in a person with their own head, let alone someone else’s.

I don’t think he’s expecting the chap to gain mobility (which he probably doesn’t have now from what I’ve read) but being paralysed from the neck down may be better than being dead. To be honest I can well imagine his current condition feels like a fate considerably worse than death.

The description of the chap’s condition from Wiki:

The severe form manifests in the first months of life, usually with a quick and unexpected onset (“floppy baby syndrome”). Rapid motor neuron death causes inefficiency of the major bodily organs – especially of the respiratory system – and pneumonia-induced respiratory failure is the most frequent cause of death. Babies diagnosed with SMA type I do not generally live past two years of age, with death occurring as early as within weeks in the most severe cases (sometimes termed SMA type 0). With proper respiratory support, those with milder SMA type I phenotypes, which account for around 10% of SMA I cases, are known to live into adolescence and adulthood.

None of which changes the fact that this is a pretty creepy and worrying story.

The transplanted parts will then be stuck together with glue and stitches.

Easy peasy..can’t see why were’re not all doing it…

DrP

Easy peasy..can’t see why were’re not all doing it…

DrP

Are you a real Dr? 🙂

Does he get to keep the clothes of the body donor? Chances are that his own wardrobe* will no longer fit him.

*Apart from any hats. Obviously.

Chances are that his own wardrobe will no longer fit him her.

ftfy

Is there any reason they can’t do a gender change at the same time?

Don’t try and baffle me with details!

Are you a real Dr?

My collection of failed head transplants messing up my consulting room would probably suggest I am, but not a very good one…

However…

The transplanted parts will then be stuck together with glue and stitches.

I now have the answer 😉

DrP

The nutjob doing the surgery is proclaiming that the stuff he’s using to ‘glue’ the bits of spinal cord together (polyethylene glycol) should allow the brain to command the body, and to breathe/move/function etc.

I don’t doubt that it’s possible the donor/recipient might recover consciousness etc, but I find it stretches credulity to suggest they will recover even basic functionality. If PEG was such a miracle, we’d use it all the time (we don’t), even in basic locomotion studies.

This is the thing…
Connecting a large single nerve back together seems feasible. The spinal cord is a single entity containing ‘a lot’ of indistinguishable nerve pathways…
DrP is doubtful…

DrP

It’s like tryign to join loads of this up with a bit of araldite, how can they have any expectation of success?

Because of

mixed results in dogs and monkeys

Imagine if the two bits of spinal cord did reconnect but to the wrong bits. He would struggle to march nicely for a start – he’d be tick ticking all over the shop, and probably not going in a straight line – and this would preclude him from a career in the military.

mixed results in dogs and monkeys

what does that mean – every time it tried to have a wee it’s tail wagged?

Worse, punched itself in the face.

“Don’t worry, his bark’s instead of his bite”

I think this is the surgeon

There was a piece in the New Scientist about this. Basically most folks who know about this stuff think the technology just isn’t there and won’t be for many years. The techniques he is talking about for fusing the spinal cord are still in their infancy. ’tis the stuff of sci-fi nightmares.

“Don’t worry, his bark’s instead of his bite”

*applauds*

Apart from the incredibly gross part of this and most medics saying it’s impossible I still have my doubts – this story has being doing the rounds for a couple of years and it’s always 2 years away.