In 1954 Soviet Doctor Vladimir Demikhov began a series of groundbreaking yet disturbing experiments to conjoin dogs. Demikhov was a pioneer in transplantology, having successfully transplanted several organs including hearts and lungs in mammals. However, Demikhov wanted to go even further and perform a transplantation of a secondary dog head on to a dog using vascular connections to the host dogs heart.
For the first surgery, a stray german shepherd named Brodyaga (Tramp) and a small dog named Shavka were chosen. The surgery began by sedating both dogs. Shavka’s lower body was amputated just below the ribcage and the spine was severed. Her heart and lungs were kept connected until the very last minute. An incision was made at the base of the larger dogs neck and then began the process of carefully joining the two dogs blood vessels together and attaching Shavka’s trachea to Brodyaga’s lungs. The final stages involved removing Shavka’s lungs and heart. Her oesophagus was not attached to Brodyagas stomach and instead left outside. Both dogs vertebrae were attached together via plastic strings.
The operation took a mere 3 and a half hours. Both dogs were able to see, hear, smell and swallow. Although Shavka was able to drink, the liquid just drained out on to the floor. Sadly, Shavka and Brodyagas survived just 4 days.
In total Demikhov performed 24 of these surgeries, with varying success. The lifespan of these dogs varied from 4 days to 29 days. His transplantations were widely criticised by the Soviet Union for being unethical but it wasn’t until 1959 that America and Europe became aware of these operations. Although these incredible surgeries pioneered transplantation techniques there was very little direct application to human surgery, thus the purpose of these surgeries can be questioned. The last attempt in 1968 involving a puppy and a dog’s body was stuffed and sent to Riga’s Museum of History of Medicine.
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