Features@ITRealms:
… Science,
volunteers, surgeons, technology
Preamble:
Lately,
a Russian software programmer, Valery Spiridonov, volunteered his head for a
medical technology experiment known as ‘head transplant.’ DigitalSENSE Business
News reports that a head transplant, according to an online encyclopedia,
Wikipedia, “is a surgical operation involving the grafting of one organism's
head onto the body of another. Head transplantation involves decapitating the
patient.
Also, DigitalSENSE Business News
reports that head transplants have been successfully performed on animals
including dogs, monkeys and rats by surgeons. Although all the animals were
unable to move and died shortly afterwards, yet there are plans for the first
human head transplant.
Valery, a
software reprogrammed?
On
the other hand, literarily speaking, to reprogramme a software technically, one
needs to first and foremost programme it, thus entails a computer programme which is a collection of instructions
that performs a specific task when executed by a computer. A computer requires programmes to
function, and typically executes the programme's instructions in a central processing
unit. A part of a computer programme that performs a well-defined task is known as an algorithm.
Conversely, to reprogramme such a
software involves
ordinarily the reversal of the instructions collected
to that performs a specific task when executed by a computer, definitively a
computer scientists; who has acquired the knowledge of computer science, the study of
the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their
application and if discussing medical technology, the scientists must be
grounded in the knowledge of technology for medical advantage.
Meet Valery who
opted for head transplant:
As
the Italian neuroscientist is making headlines after announcing plans to this
year perform the world’s first head transplant on a Russian man who has
volunteered for the controversial operation.
Valery
Spiridonov would be 32 this year, 2017, when he anticipated to have his head
transplanted by a team of some over 80 surgeons.
Spiridonov
seems among other volunteers for this much talked about transplant, very
popular, is a self-employed software programmer who resides in Vladimir, just
about 120 miles east of Moscow, according Atlantic.com.
Although
he has a terminal ailment, known as Werding-Hoffmann disease, which left him
bound on a wheelchair, he also runs an educational software business.
The
Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, DigitalSENSE Business News learnt is a genetic
disorder that causes muscles to waste away and motor neurons to die.
The
ailment has limited his movements to feeding himself, typing and steering his
wheelchair-enabled activities with a joystick.
As
at the time of going to press, Spiridonov, it was gathered, has been known for
beating the odds. For instance, doctors had told him that he should have died
of the disease years long ago, but here he is offering death himself for this
experiment
Spiridonov
has come up with a novel way to help fund the surgery, estimated to cost
between $10 million and $100 million. He has begun selling hats, T-shirts, mugs
and iPhone covers, all with an image of his head on a new body, online as a way
to raise funds for the experiment.
A year
without a heart!
Just
as the world is gearing up for the head transplant, DigitalSENSE Business News
gathered there was a 25-year-old man who spent over a year without a heart whilst
waiting for a donor heart. Stan Larkin and his brother, Dominique, were
reportedly diagnosed with familial cardiomyopathy which resulted in difficulty
of the heart properly pumping blood, according to the IFL Science. “It was an
emotional rollercoaster,” said Larkin, who waited a total of 555 days for a
donor heart using an external pumping device he wore on his back. The battery
powered device was implemented when Larkin had his heart removed in 2014, and
it only weighs 6 kilograms.
Here comes
Canavero:
Professor
Sergio Canavero is leading over 80 medical doctors including Chinese surgeon
Dr. Xiaoping Ren to decapitate the like of Valery Spiridonov and invariably
place his head on a donor body, which is as at press time unconfirmed.
But
speaking to the Newsbeat programme on British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
recently, Prof Sergio Canavero said he received lots of volunteers from the
United Kingdom (UK) who wanted the trial. Stressing that the process would see
the patient using a donor body and having their head fixed to it. He expressed
confident that the technology is now readily available to make the head
transplant a reality.
According
to Prof. Canavero, he expected to have everything ready to roll by the end of
2017, noting where it will eventually happen depends on the availability of a
suitable brain donor. He pointed out that the last facial transplant took
several months to be brought to fruition because there was no suitable donor at
the time, but the technology will be there.
The
surgeon also told Correspondent, the list of willing patients is so long and
several of the patients are from the UK as he declared at the last quarter, "The
UK does have the possibility to do this sort of surgery and it might really
take place in the UK, or in Germany or in France."
How a head
transplant work?
The
seemly controversial Prof. Canavero, equally claimed the transplant will take some
150 medical staff involved and within 36 hours, to carry out. As said by him, the
initial step would be to freeze the head and body to stop brain cells from
dying. Then, the neck would be cut and tubes connecting key relevant arteries
and veins fitted.
He
explained that these exercises will be followed by cutting the spinal cord,
which Canavero described as “the tricky part,” emphasising it will be done with
a special knife made from diamonds because of their strength. Canavero said
that the head will then be moved onto the donor body and the spinal chords
fused together with a special type of glue.
“Muscles,
veins and organs are then reattached and the skin is stitched together,” he
asserted, elucidating that there will be testing of the process first on brain
dead living donors.
"We
will simply cut the surgical cord, and over 6 to 12 hours, monitor their
recovery and neuro-physiological conduction (electrical impulses). We now have
a better substance that can renew the severed spinal cord; Something that when
you put it there you work the miracle of reconnecting. The results that we got
are so astounding,” he said.
Further,
Canavero noted that sometimes people get to the emergency department and the
surgical cord is cut 90 per cent. “We imitated this scenario with a dog. We
applied this [material] and the dog made an amazing recovery in two weeks. It
was running, and I mean running."
What science
believed hitherto?
However,
most medical experts across the world have divergent views over this proposed
head transplant with the aid of technology, describing Prof. Canavero’s
theories as a 'science fiction' as they insisted that a head transplant is simply
impossible. Even as Prof. Canavero maintained that he's confident he can
successfully carry out the procedure.
"When
everything will be set I expect a 90 per cent chance of success. 90 per cent
means that the patient reawakens without damage and starts walking within one
month or moving during physiotherapy. Right now we are bringing hope to people
who have been let down by Western medicine. No more lies. We need this because
medicine has no way to manipulate the genes, manipulate the biology," he
upheld.
Summary:
Medical
technology like this one being explored by Prof. Canavero and his team, has
come a long way considering the first heart transplant which took place over 50
years ago. The fact that medical technology has gotten to the point that a
human could live without a heart for over a year, let alone any amount of time,
is astounding, such as in the case of Larkin brothers.
It
is also high time that Nigerian universities make it a point of duty to share
research findings, mostly out of the over 152 universities, cutting across
federal - 40; states - 44 and private universities - 68. And where they live up
to expectations, medical tourism, which gulps some $3 billion annually for Nigeria’s medical tourism as at February 2016, requires
revisiting at this time of economic recession.
Although
Nigerian medics are making their own peculiar inroads in other areas of
surgery, one hopes that as matter of fact, that at some of our medical doctors
with specialty in neurology and even as members of the Nigerian Academy of
Neurological Surgeons (NANS), should take a very keen interest in this head
transplant exercise.
As
2017 kicks-in fully, a lot of expectations await the medical profession,
especially a lot of hopes hanging on the novelty of a human head transplant
with the aid of technologies.
Remmy Nweke/ED, Op
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