VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese organ transplant experts say head transplantation is a new technique and the country is just ‘studying’ and ‘considering’ the operation.

Pham Sy Long and physicians from the National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplants

Pham Sy Long, 28, from Ha Tinh province, became the first person who registered to have his head transplanted to another body. Long was paralyzed after an accident and had a spinal cord injury in 2003. At that time, he was 15 years old and a ninth grader.

The National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplants, located at the Vietnam-Germany Friendship Hospital, confirmed that besides Long, the center has received five other registrations.

However, the center said it is still unclear when the first human head transplant surgery can be carried out as doctors are still studying the technique and there have been no registrations to donate bodies for head transplants.

Cao Tien Sy, head of the center’s legal division, said the center welcomes people like Long, but the risks must be explained. Long said, however, he wants to devote himself to Vietnam’s medicine and he accepts the risk.

The head transplant operation was part of a discussion about new achievements in the healthcare sector at a national conference which took place in late 2015. 

Dr Trinh Hong Son, director of the National Coordinating Centre for Human Organ Transplants, then talked about a project on transplanting human heads programmed by an Italian scientist. 

If the project goes successfully, Vietnam would send its staff to training courses to learn about the technique, or may invite the surgery team to Vietnam to carry out the operation here.

However, the plan cannot proceed because of technical and legal matters.

According to Sy, in order to conduct the head transplant operation, patients will have to have their spinal cord transplanted first. This still cannot be implemented anywhere in the world. 

He said human cells have the capability of storing information, and so do live bodies to transplanted with heads.

The information about the first head transplant in the world to be carried out by Italian neurosurgeon Dr Sergio Canavero is still unclear. 

Foreign newspapers once quoted Dr Sergio Canavero as reporting that a hospital in Vietnam says it is willing to host the surgery. However, relevant agencies in Vietnam all denied this, saying that they have not been informed about the operation.

In the latest news, the surgeon said the first surgery case would be implemented by December 2017, and the patient is Valery Spiridonov, 31.

Thanh Mai