Recently, the entire scientific world was shocked by a sensational report. In Cape Town, in the clinic, which was once headed by K. Bernard, who for the first time successfully performed a human heart transplant, another stunning operation was performed
Shark gills were transplanted to a black youth suffering from pulmonary insufficiency (the result of advanced tuberculosis). The patient refused the donor lung transplant, explaining this as follows. First, he does not have enough money to pay the cost of the organ and the operation. And he was offered to do gill transplantation free of charge, at the expense of the scientific foundation. Secondly, the young man himself was disappointed in his way of life on earth and wanted to start all over again, already in the ocean.
The operation went well. Now aesculapians are carefully observing whether the rejection of the transplanted organ will begin, trying to prevent this with the help of special drugs.
This means that a real Ichthyander will be swimming in the ocean very soon! And now remember the novel by A. Belyaev "The Head of Professor Dowell". Scientist Dowell has created a solution with which the human head can lead a relatively fulfilling life. He is convinced that his discovery will bring good to people, but can it really be? Nonsense, absolutely unreal! the educated reader will exclaim. However, don't be so categorical.
In 1902, the famous Russian physiologist A. A. Kulyabko, after reviving the child's heart (taken out of the corpse, it acted outside the body for several hours), tried to revive the head. In the beginning it was the head of a fish. A special liquid, a blood substitute, was supplied to the head through the blood vessels. The result was incredible: the head moved its eyes and fins, opened and closed its mouth - all this eloquently testified that it was alive!
In 1928, physiologists S. S. Bryukhonenko and S. I. Chechulin demonstrated the living head of an already warm-blooded animal - a dog. Connected to a heart-lung machine, she was quite active. When a tampon moistened with acid was placed on the tongue of a dog's head, he tried to throw away the irritant; if a piece of sausage was placed in his mouth, the head licked. They blinked when a stream of air was directed into their eyes.
In 1959, successful experiments with dog heads were repeatedly conducted by Professor V. P. Demikhov. At the same time, he was convinced that it is quite possible to maintain life in the human head.
Well, now about the most incredible: have such experiments been carried out with the human head? This kind of information is always under the cover of secrecy. And yet, in the mid-70s, a sensational report flashed in the press. Two German neurosurgeons, Wallner Kraiter and Henry Courage, managed to keep an amputated human head alive for twenty days. A forty-year-old man who had just been injured in a car accident was brought to the clinic. His head was almost torn off from his body, there could be no question of saving a person.
In this situation, neurosurgeons decided to try to keep life at least in the victim's brain. A life support system was connected to the head, and for almost three weeks after that, it kept the brain of a person in an active state, whose body had long been dead. Moreover, the doctors made contact with the head. Scientists "read" a lot of words by the movement of her lips, from which it clearly followed that she understood what was happening to her.
Finally, Philadelphia physician Truman Doughty did the seemingly impossible. In 1989, his wife Brenda was diagnosed with cancer. The terrible news prompted Truman to develop a life support device. The disease progressed rapidly, and the Aesculapius lost hope of saving the dying woman. And then he made an attempt to save his head.
The entire operation took about six hours. Doughty knew full well that he could go to jail on a murder charge. The doctor risked, but, as it turned out, risked not in vain. The fantastic experiment ended in triumph. By the way, Brenda did not doubt for a minute about the necessity of the operation and agreed to it. For several years Truman hid that his wife's head was alive and well. Only recently did the world learn about an incredible event. According to Doughty, Brenda is able to speak using a special device.
It is difficult to believe in all this, but one thing is clear: the scientific ideas of Alexander Belyaev have become reality.