Something to lose your head over

[MD-1118]

Not sure if this was posted yet, but a quick skim over the first couple of pages didn't seem to turn up anything.

Basically this guy has a rare and severely debilitating condition and has volunteered for a head (or body?) transplant - they lop off his head and the head of a brain-dead but otherwise healthy person, then attach his head to the healthy body.

Yeah.

I'm extremely skeptical as to how likely this is to suceed, but considering we can reattach limbs with more and more success these days, I'm sure that one day this will be no big deal and people will be getting body transplants from relatively healthy donors left and right. I'm just not sure this guy chose the right time to try his luck.

Also, hello again all!

[callmeslick]

saw that, considered the vast amount of bodily systems involved and chuckled. Lotsa luck! Head transplantation would involve non-rejected connection of the central nervous system between a brain and trunk that have different learned pathways, reconnection of a complex vascular system, plus involvement of the upper digestive tract.

[Tunnelcat]

I had to check the date of the story to make sure it hadn't been posted on April 1st.

It's not going to go well for this guy if they go through with it. Waaaay too many issues with attaching everything correctly and tissue rejection, plus, I didn't think the spinal cord could be reconnected and actually have working muscles when done. He'd be paralyzed is my guess. He must not care if he dies after this either, so he's desperate.

Haven't seen you here for awhile MD-1118. Glad to see you.

[Krom]

So does this mean sometime in the future it might be possible to give someone a complete brain transplant? I know some people I'd like to uhh, volunteer for that operation...

[MD-1118]

Yeah, I'm inclined to think his chances of surviving this at all are slim to none. Still, pioneer work has to be done at some point I suppose, and it will just make the next person's chances a little better. I believe there's a team of a dozen or so highly trained and skilled surgeons who will be participating in this, and they'll be using immunosuppressants to help prevent rejection, so who knows, maybe he will get lucky. The article mentioned the use of some sort of bioadhesive though, which is odd. They're literally going to glue his head on!

Haven't seen you here for awhile MD-1118. Glad to see you.

Thanks, TC. It's been hectic for a while, but things are finally settling down a bit, and when I saw the kickstarter for Underground I remembered being a member of this quaint little community.

So does this mean sometime in the future it might be possible to give someone a complete brain transplant? I know some people I'd like to uhh, volunteer for that operation...

Don't we all, Krom?