For some time now a hot topic has circulating the internet of the world’s first head transplant. A group of surgeons have claimed to have successfully carried out the first head transplant operation, however, the big question remains as to whether this is really true. The authenticity if the news is seriously in question.
A medical team led by a surgeon Professor Myron Danus had allegedly carried out the head transplant performed on a 36 year old patient by the name of Paul Horner who had been suffering from cancer.
The fantastic news story relates how the Professor found Paul Horner's body riddled with cancer for 5 years had less than a month to live. The head was obtained by an organ donor, a 21-year-old who had been brain dead from a car accident in 2012. The boy’s body worked fine but his brain was dead with no chances of recovery. The fantastic procedure was planned to transplant Horners head onto the 21-year-old boy’s body.
In total contradiction of a real head transplant that may take place in 2017, the Paul Horner head transplant took just 19 hours to accomplish. What is totally fake here is the case that a head transplant even if it were possible would require a team of no less than 100 surgeons and 36 hours to complete. The alleged procedure instead took a small team of surgeons and was supposedly done at the Charlotte Maxexe Johannesburg Academic Hospital.
Image Source: www.newmail-ng.com
Take a look at the assumed team of incredible surgeons who were supposed to have worked on the world’s first head transplant. According to the mysterious Profesor Danus, the donor’s parents were grateful for having being given the opportunity to donate their son’s body for a worthy cause.
Image Source: www.dailymail.com.ng
It is most unlikely for something as fabricated as this to even be true because it could never be successful given the medical restrictions in place. However the tall stories continued even as surgeons released a statement saying “Our goal is for Horner to be fully functional in two years and we are extremely pleased at his rapid recovery”. One of the surgeons, a certain Tom Downey was alleged to have even shared the story with CNN stating it was a massive breakthrough. What’s epic is the image in the story is of another Italian doctor Sergio Canavero projected as Tom Downey.
Image Source: www.neonetwork.pk
How such a story came to be circulated on the internet and pieced together is a huge mystery. The world’s first head transplant as much as it would have been a mammoth step in science is virtually impossible at this moment. It is a cleverly masterminded and well-constructed news hoax. However what isn’t a hoax is the first man who has volunteered for the first ever head transplant which may take place this year 2017.
Image Source: www.twimg.com
Russian Valerie Spiridonov 30 who suffers from a rare genetic muscle disorder called Werdnig Hoffman syndrome or type 1 spinal muscular atrophy is part of the Heaven Gemini project launched in 2013 by Doctor Sergio Canavero of the Turin Advanced Neuro Modulation Group which hopes top perform a head transplant on Spirinov. However several medical scientists have called doctor Canavero nuts and compared him to the fictional character Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Hunt Batjer, president-elect of the American Association for Neurological Surgeons, told CNN: 'I would not wish this on anyone. I would not allow anyone to do it to me as there are a lot of things worse than death”. This goes to show how false the story being circulated as a successful head transplant.
Image Source: www.ytimg.com