Vladimir Demikhov , towards human centipede creation ? Russian transplantologist's account : WIERD WIKI SERIES
Vladimir
Petrovich Demikhov (July
18, 1916 – Moscow, November 22,
1998) was a Soviet scientist and organ transplant pioneer, who
performed several transplantations in the 1930s and 1950s, such as the
transplantation of a heart into an animal and a lung-heart replacement in an animal.
He is also well known for his transplantation of the heads of dogs
He
conducted his dog head transplants during the 1950s, resulting in two-headed
dogs, and this ultimately led to the head transplants in monkeys by Dr. Robert White,
who was inspired by Demikhov's work.
Demikhov
coined the word transplantology,
and his 1960 monograph “Experimental transplantation of vital organs”, for
which he received his doctoral degree, later published in 1962 in New York,
Berlin and Madrid, became the world’s first monograph on transplantology, and
was for a long time the only monograph in the field of transplantation of
organs and tissues.
Christiaan
Barnard, who performed the world's first heart transplant operation
from one person to another person in 1967, twice visited Demikhov's laboratory
in 1960 and 1963, and considered Demikhov his teacher.
Demikhov died in
obscurity in 1998, but he was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd class, shortly
before his death. He had also received a USSR State Prize.
The Russian
documentary "Experiments in the Revival of Organisms"
depicts similar experiments carried out in the Soviet Union.
But
at first, people took his acts as out of culture, and even thought the mad
doctor is going on way to make a human or animal centipede!
Achievements
Psychedelic rock
musician Roky Erickson has a song
called "Two Headed Dog (Red Temple Prayer)" which is about Demikhov's
head transplant experiments.
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