World's first full HEAD transplant due 2016 from brain dead donor

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A man with a fatal medical condition has spoken exclusively to MailOnline about how he is set to become the first person to undergo a head transplant and hopes it could be as soon as next year.

Valery Spiridonov says he is ready to put his trust in controversial surgeon Dr Sergio Canavero who claims he can cut off his head and attach it to a healthy body.

Mr Spiridonov, 30, a computer scientist from Russia, said: 'My decision is final and I do not plan to change my mind.'

As a lifelong sufferer of the rare genetic Werdnig-Hoffman muscle wasting disease, he says he wants the chance of a new body before he dies.

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Hope: Valery Spiridonov wants to be the first person to undergo a head transplant so he can have a shot at having a healthy body having suffered from the Werdnig-Hoffman muscle wasting disease

The patient's head would then be placed onto the donor's body and attached using what Canavero calls his 'magic ingredient' - a glue-like substance called polyethylene glycol - to fuse the two ends of the spinal cord together.

The muscles and blood supply would be stitched up, before the patient is put into a coma for four weeks to stop them from moving while the head and body heal together.

When they wake the patient should be able to move, feel their face and even speak with the same voice. Powerful immunosuppressant drugs should stop the new body from being rejected.

Critics say Dr Canavero has simplified the difficulties involved in reattaching a spinal cord.

The Italian doctor has also so far failed to secure funding for the staff of 150 doctors and nurses he believes are required to complete the procedure.

 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.

 Dr Hunt Batjer

However, the Italian is confident he can successfully transplant a head on to another body.

And if successful, his pioneering procedure could give new hope to thousands of paralysed and disabled people.

Mr Spiridonov was diagnosed with the rare muscle-wasting condition, Werdnig-Hoffman disease, at the age of one. Tragically the disease progresses every day.

He told MailOnline: 'I can hardly control my body now. I need help every day, every minute. I am now 30 years old, although people rarely live to more than 20 with this disease.'

He continued: 'My muscles stopped any development in childhood. Because of this, they do not grow and the skeleton gets deformed. The back muscles cannot support the skeleton.' 

With his condition worsening each day, Mr Spiridonov is desperate for the technique to work. He told MailOnline: 'If you want something to be done, you need to participate in it.

'I do understand the risks of such surgery. They are multiple. We can't even imagine what exactly can go wrong. I'm afraid that I wouldn't live long enough to see it happen to someone else.'

He said his family fully support his decision to be the first human to undergo such surgery.

Mr Spiridonov added: 'What's more, there's already a lot of effort invested in this idea and that's why it's too late to back out.

'I came up with this idea quite some time ago. I read many scientific articles on this topic.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/