4.4 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2024
⏱️ 10 minutes
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In the 1950s, Soviet scientist Dr Vladimir Demikhov shocks the world with his two-headed dog experiments.
He grafts the head and paws of one dog onto the body of another. One of his creations lives for 29 days.
He wants to prove the possibilities of transplant surgery, which was a new field of medicine at the time.
Consultant cardiothoracic surgeon, Igor Konstantinov, tells Vicky Farncombe about the "difficult emotions" he experiences when he looks at photos of the creatures.
This programme includes a description of one of the experiments which some listeners may find upsetting.
(Photo: Vladimir Demikhov. Credit: Getty Images)
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0:00.0 | I'm John Ronson and I'm an invisible enemy. |
0:05.0 | That changed people psychologically. |
0:08.0 | Words can be dangerous if you don't know the context. |
0:12.0 | We were told to stay at home. |
0:15.0 | We lived with an invisible enemy, |
0:17.0 | with only the internet for company. |
0:19.0 | That changed people psychologically. |
0:21.0 | I'm John Ronson, and I'll be unerthing the roots of the |
0:24.4 | culture wars that engulfed us then and still do now. |
0:29.2 | The award-winning podcast, Things Fell Apart, Returns. |
0:33.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
0:35.0 | Hello, you're listening to the Witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me |
0:45.4 | Vicky Vancom. |
0:46.4 | It's so often occurs in medicine or in surgery that people are not known for their outstanding |
1:00.0 | medical procedures that leads to something really great and important for humanity. |
1:11.6 | But they're so easily remembered for something which fascinates people. |
1:18.3 | So what could fascinate people more than transplantation of a second head. |
1:25.0 | That's Igor Constantinoff. He's a consultant cardioheuristic surgeon at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. a he has studied. In 1959, Dr Demikoff invited photographer Howard Sochurek from Life magazine |
1:49.7 | to capture him and his assistant Dr. Vladimir Goryenov performing their latest surgery, the creation |
1:57.5 | of a two-headed dog. |
2:00.7 | As Howard walked into the operating theatre, he heard the barks from a small mongrel with floppy ears and a pointed nose. |
2:09.0 | Dr Demykov explained the dog was a nine-year-old bitch called Shafka and would be what he called the |
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