The world’s first successful head transplant has been carried out on a 36-year-old man, diagnosed with bone cancer, five years ago. The 19-hour operation has allowed the patient to be cancer-free. Paul Horner, who was diagnosed with bone cancer five years ago, was on the verge of death when he was approved for the controversial and possibly deadly operation.
Doctor Tom Downey, who was part of the South African team that carried out the operation, said: “It’s a massive breakthrough. We’ve proved that it can be done – we can give someone a brand new body that is just as good, or better, than their previous one. Professor Myron Danus, who led the operation, said Horner had less than a month to live before they found a a donor body; a 21-year-old man who has been brain dead from a serious car accident that happened in 2012.