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How long could a head be kept alive

DRBUZZ0

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This might sound like a stupid question, but something I was just wondering about.


Assume one has nearly unlimited finances (billionaire rich) and thus is limited only by technology and biology, and that this person does not want to die, despite the fact that many of their organs are failing. Furthermore, they are willing to spend a lot of their fortune on their maintenance.


Thus, their head is connected to a heart-lung machine, a kidney dialysis machine, an artificial liver, and blood chemistry analyzing equipment.

Doaner blood is circulated through the head continuously and the blood is constantly analyzed, with the necessary nutrients, fluids and other chemicals dripped in. New blood is used to replace the dying cells and to avoid any buildup of toxins.

The blood is kept oxygenated and at the proper temperature and the system is constantly monitored for signs of an infection, with the head being kept in a near sterile state to avoid pathogens.


Add a blower, to send air up the throat, when talking is wanted, and a few technicians to shave the head and turn the pages of books or change the channel or scratch your ear....


Would this be possible? What would be the limiting factor?

I think, in all probability, if this could be made to work, it would not be long before a blood clot or vein damage caused problems...
 
I'm no medical person, so all I've got to add is interesting idea and that I'm sure some kind of control that could be operated by the tongue and voice commands could be come up with.
Controlling technology by nerve impulses (willing it to happen basically, like you move a limb) already exists in a limited capacity too.
 
But even with all that, how long before the head just wears out to the point where cells lose their ability to repair themselves? From what I understand, cells have a maximum number of times they can replicate.
 
Dark Jaguar said:
But even with all that, how long before the head just wears out to the point where cells lose their ability to repair themselves? From what I understand, cells have a maximum number of times they can replicate.
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yes that's true. Eventually, you'd probably have a stroke or brain cancer or something, but if one's head was in pretty decent shape and there were multiple problems with other organs, I wonder how long it could go??

The brain is mostly nerve tissue which does not reproduce like other cells do, but there are blood vessels and connective tissue to consider too.

If people can live past 100, but you're 70 and have lung cancer and a bad heart, could your head go 30+ years more?
 
100px-Al_Gore_on_Futurama.JPG


At least a thousand years.
 
About 4 minutes.

No, make that 3 and a half - it's just stopped twitching.

Time for a fresh one.:o
 
rjh01 said:
At present they only keep a person alive on a heart lung machine for a few hours. Not sure what happens after that.
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Blood clots and all sorts of other damage. And it would be hard to just pump blood to the head because you'd have to prime the pump with blood which isn't what is normally used.

Technology is still limited.
The circuit must be filled, or "primed," with a physiological saline solution before the procedure in order to remove the air from the circuit and to avoid removing too much blood from the patient. Priming can cause postoperative complications like low red blood cell counts due to over-dilution from the saline solution, particularly in smaller patients, who do not have much blood volume in the first place.

Another problem is agitating the blood by removing it from the body and running it through a plastic circuit.

Blood reacts to being in contact with strange surfaces, and blood components like clotting factors and platelets can become so agitated that the blood itself can present challenging problems for the patient after surgery.

....This condition is called systemic inflammatory response and can significantly lengthen a stay in the intensive care unit.
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skeptigirl said:
Blood clots and all sorts of other damage. And it would be hard to just pump blood to the head because you'd have to prime the pump with blood which isn't what is normally used.

Technology is still limited.
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Didn't scientists try this a few decades back with chimpanzees and/or dogs?

It's too bad the experimentation apparently ceased. I believe successful head to new body transplants were done, and the heads were kept alive hours or days. The heads had their basic functions met by the bodies but were unable to control the bodies. I wonder what we could do though with current technology.
 
The state of the art as of 2001

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1263758.stm

<snip>

A controversial operation to transplant the whole head of a monkey onto a different body has proved a partial success.
<snip>

He said that in the experiment, his team had been able to: "transplant the brain as a separate organ into an intact animal and maintain it in a viable, or living situation for many days."

<snip>
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Another article (can't vouch for its accuracy):

http://healthyliving.allinfo-about.com/head.html

So apparently they can keep a monkey head and brain alive for a week, and probably much longer (they put them down after a week for "humane" reasons) -and they think it would only be easier with humans. But they can't yet regenerate neural tissue to allow the brain to control the new body -it can only be nourished and sustained by it.
 
Funny you should mention about the head thing. I have already wondered that when the extremists sever someone's head, if the person having their head severed knows their head is off their body for a second or so? Could you imAgine?!...the horror.
 
You mean as in decapitation with a sword?

I expect the massive drop in blood pressure causes unconsciousness pretty well instantly.
Still it is a nasty thought. Just thinking it even while still beshouldered is bad enough.
 
Iamme said:
Funny you should mention about the head thing. I have already wondered that when the extremists sever someone's head, if the person having their head severed knows their head is off their body for a second or so? Could you imAgine?!...the horror.
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You probably shouldn't have brought this up, because I've heard some really gruesome stories from the Terror (part of the history of the French Revolution) in which the severed head was held up to the crowd after guillotining and remained apparently aware of what it was seeing. And it's apparently more than just a couple of seconds, FYI. Neat, huh? :P

ETA: it was clear that the head remained aware because of the changing expressions on the face.
 
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Schneibster said:
You probably shouldn't have brought this up, because I've heard some really gruesome stories from the Terror (part of the history of the French Revolution) in which the severed head was held up to the crowd after guillotining and remained apparently aware of what it was seeing. And it's apparently more than just a couple of seconds, FYI. Neat, huh? :P

ETA: it was clear that the head remained aware because of the changing expressions on the face.
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You would not have any video links?:D I would not trust the accuracy of early 19th century stories. There could be other explanations, like the muscles reacting to no blood.

One minor problem with executions is when they are not carried out correctly, for example if the head is not cut off cleanly first time.
 
rjh01 said:
You would not have any video links?:D I would not trust the accuracy of early 19th century stories. There could be other explanations, like the muscles reacting to no blood.

One minor problem with executions is when they are not carried out correctly, for example if the head is not cut off cleanly first time.
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A. There were no movies for most of the 19th century. There were crude ones in the 1890's, but it wasn't until the 20th century that movies were commonly taken of events.

B. It's generally frowned upon to film executions. I am aware of one beheading being filmed, but it was from a long distance and showed very litle, only the back of the condemned.

C. If you were to film an execution, it's unlikely that you could have arrangements made to get some closeups of the head as it comes off. Again...too grusome.

D. Beheadings aren't done much anymore. There could be some al queda or taliban videos which would fit the bill, but why would you want to see that? or care?

It's entirely plausable that you could be aware of things for a short time...a VERY VERY short time. It would be over in seconds, at the most.
 
You would not use real blood - that would pretty much eliminate the stroke thing. I seem to recall teflon or something similar being proposed for use where strokes and/or aversion to transfusions of real blood came up.
 
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