‘My dream is over’
The man who volunteered to be a human guinea pig by undertaking the world's first head transplant this year has admitted his dream will never happen.
Severely handicapped Russian Valery Spiridonov, 31, was announced in 2015 as the man to undergo the operation.
But neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero has now announced he will undertake the first such transplant in China with an as-yetunnamed local patient.
Spiridonov, who worked with Canavero for two years and became the human face of head transplant surgery, acknowledged he had lost his hope of a new body free from disabilities.
He suffers from WerdnigHoffman disease, a form of spinal muscular atrophy, and has already defied life expectancy predictions.
“Given that I cannot rely on my Italian colleague, I have to take my health into my own hands,” he said.
The Russian will now seek new conventional spinal surgery to improve his life, rather than the transplant that experts warned had a high risk of death. “Luckily, there is quite a well-tested surgery for cases like mine when a steel implant is used to support a spine in a straight position,” said Spiridonov.
“There are several places in Russia where they carry out such surgery. It eases breathing and helps [with moving] in public transport, and just [sitting] down.
“The surgery will not bring strong muscles back and won't let me walk, but it will radically improve the quality of my life.”
He hopes to use crowdfunding to raise the estimated $57,000 he will need for the operation, a fraction of the vast cost of a head transplant.