Head Transplant Story
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Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero, from the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group, claims the Frankenstein-style procedure to graft a living person's head on to a donor body will soon be ready.
The breakthrough surgery is being pioneered to help extend the lives of people who have suffered degeneration of the muscles and nerves or those who have advanced cancer.
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The recipient's head and the donor body would be cooled at the start of the procedure to extend the time that cells can survive without oxygen.
Tissue around the neck would be dissected and major blood vessels would be joined using tiny tubes.
The spinal cords would then be cut and the recipient's head moved on to the donor body. The ends of the spinal cord would be fused together using a chemical called polyethylene glycol, which encourages fat within cell membranes to mesh.
After this, the person would be put into a coma for around four weeks to prevent them moving while they heal.
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The first successful head transplant - involving moving the head of one monkey on to another - was carried out in 1970 at the Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, US.
The monkey lived for nine days, but its immune system rejected the head.
