Life without a head (‘Frankenstein’ Head Transplant: What happened with a Russian programmer?)
The idea of transplanting a donor’s head onto a body was conceived by Russian science fiction author Alexander Belyaev. In 1923 he wrote the book “Professor Dowell’s Head.” In 1954 a Soviet scientist Vladimir Demihov sewed the head of a puppy with shoulders and front paws to a donor body German shepherd. Despite a successful surgery, it lived only a few days.
In 2015, the media exploded with reports that Russian Valery Spiridonov, suffering from spinal muscular atrophy, flew to the United States at the invitation of neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero, who promised to transplant him … a healthy body.
The surgery was required the participation of 100 surgeons and was planning to take more than 36 hours. The patient would spend a month in a coma and a whole year of physical therapy and rehabilitation.
According to a report by CNN television channel, Canavero and Spiridonov have communicated through Skype but have never met. Spirodonov would be the first human to undergo the full head transplant.
