The career of Russian surgeon Vladimir Demikhov began promising. During the ’30s he conceived the idea of organ transplant, something that at that time was regarded as science fiction. When World War II was over, he grabbed his chance. In 1946, he transplanted the first set of heart and lungs in a dog: the animal lived one day. Organ transplantation was a fact. Sadly, Demikhov decided to take it even one step further. He conducted a horrible project in which he transplanted the upper body of a puppy to the head of a mature German shepherd. Voila: a two-headed dog.
The story of the two-headed dog is not a myth. After two-headed dog no. 1 died, has created Demikhov nineteen other specimens. All dogs died very quickly to rejection symptoms or infections. Demikhov’s reputation would never be the same. The Dog Days were over .
Konstantinov IE (2009). At the cutting edge of the impossible: a tribute to Vladimir P. Demikhov. Texas Heart Institute journal / from the Texas Heart Institute of St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Texas Children’s Hospital, 36 (5), 453-8 PMID: 19876428