World's First Head Transplant Recipient Wants A Better Life | Good Morning Britain

we have the most extraordinary story for you now over the past few years we have seen surgeons carry out the first hands transplant womb transplant and of course we've seen face transplants but now one doctor is planning on making history by performing the world's first-ever head transplant yep you heard correctly a head transplant the full head the pioneering a somewhat controversial operation we'll see the head of Valery Spiridonov who's terminally ill and wheelchair-bound attached an entirely new body we're speaking to Valerie who's here with us in just a moment first Charlotte has more on exactly what this extraordinary procedure will involve yes it really is such a complicated process and the surgeon planning this operation says it will take around 150 medical staff 36 hours to complete the first step is to freeze the head and body in order to stop the brain cells from dying the neck will then be cut and the tubes connecting the key arteries and veins fitted the next step will be the biggest challenge now this is cutting the spinal cord and doctors will be using an extremely fine blade made from diamonds to minimize the damage here the head will then be moved from the donor body and the spinal cords will be fused together using a special type of glue now once all that is in place it is a race against time to reattach all the remaining muscles veins and the organs like the esophagus once the skin is stitched together by a plastic surgeon the patient will be kept in an induced coma for four weeks to allow everything to heal it really is an extremely intricate procedure so Valery Spiridonov wants to undergo that procedure that surgery dr. Hillary is here alongside you well Valerie is fantastic to meet you and thanks so much for coming in this is just extraordinary just hearing the details of this procedure from Charlotte tell us why you want to undergo something I mean frankly so life-threatening okay as you can see I'm disabled in a particular condition but also I am very proud of science you leaked deeply into this public of this kind of stuff plantations for about 20 years I read about Arabic twice experiments with monkeys and professor vladimir demikhov for experiments with dogs so I thought that if this technology could be improved and could be done safe enough to make the response on human and to make the transplant with the the point where the brain will be able to control the new body it will make sense and of course we should evolve this procedure and make it happen Valery obviously it's a very dangerous operation do you know that you're you're a smart guy you know the risks involved have you just taken a view you have a terminal illness anyway your life expectancy is not great you have nothing to lose is that your thinking and I suppose my second question is do you know what your quality of life could be if this is all a huge success okay oh it makes plane I'm not doing only this project this whole body transportation project I'm also in charge of several other projects but this was the most public one I also try to improve lives of other people by creating autopilots which you systems other accessible devices but it became so that dr. Cayle awareness project is most give you personally battery yes I do I'm trying to get inside ok Oh quite literally your head about this right I want to know what is making you do this what is your motivation personally my motivation personally is about improving my own life conditions and due to go to the stage where I will be able to take care of myself where I will be independent from other people because and you believe this operation if it's successful yes absolutely if it's completely successful and there are massive risk it's never been done but if it works you believe the quality of your life will not only be extended but could actually be quite reasonable we're trying to do our to make this experiment safe and to make it believable and we try to do all the research which is needed to be how to be safe because today my wife is pretty tough I need to know why people to helping everyday even twice a day because I need someone to take me off my bed and put me to my wheelchair to seep into the day so it makes my wife pretty dependable from other people and if there will be a way to change this I believe it should be try it used it's where we go right that's what do you think all of a sudden the doors open and for I knew I was on side the road yeah bleeding a lot and and been you were on the coach weren't you because you'd be on the same tour and you were upstairs what did you know about but said and what happened well I can I knew nothing oh my Oh

Channel: Good Morning Britain

Views: 6,119,872

Keywords: good morning britain, breakfast show, news, morning news, gmb, good morning britain interview, morning breakfast show, itv morning, morning show, piers morgan, susanna reid, head transplant, head, transplant, valery spiridonov, medical, science, sergio canavero, dr hilary, first head transplant, human head transplant, head transplant 2017, first human head transplant, head transplant surgery, head transplant human, world's first head transplant

Id: xiHc2E3AR1o

Length: 5min 29sec (329 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 20 2016

Reddit Comments

[u/tits-mchenry]

Seems like this guy knows he's gonna die and wants to give his body to science. Because let's be real, how often are doctors ever going to get to attempt something like this? I'm sure they'll learn a shitload when it inevitably fails.

[u/quinnmct]

Piers Morgan still finds a way to come across as an asshole

[u/obeyyourbrain]

If this works, it's a pretty benchmark moment.

But I seriously have my doubts

[u/Fartmatic]

To me it seems like it would be more accurate to call it a body transplant.

[u/[deleted]]

Video is old. The guy changed his mind.

In a turn of events, the operation will no longer be performed on Valery Spiridonov, a Russian man suffering from the muscle-wasting Werdnig-Hoffman's disease, with whom Canavero has been working for almost two years. Instead, the operation will take place in China on a currently unselected Chinese national.

http://www.newsweek.com/head-transplant-sergio-canavero-valery-spiridonov-china-2017-591772

[u/SelfJuicing]

Glue?

[u/Baloneyballs]

wait whose body is he using

[u/BadSysadmin]

World's most expensive assisted suicide scheduled for December 2017.

If this was possible, they'd have demonstrated it successfully with animals, which they haven't.

[u/dogfoodinmabutt]

By the way he pulled out of the surgery but there has been another person from China willing to do it.