# Could medical science keep a decapitated head alive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 17, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189 "2007-07-17T22:07:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/1 "2007-07-17T22:07:27Z")
Inspired by the thread on extreme surgical procedures: I wonder, could a decapitated head be kept alive and functioning by connecting it to medical equipment? I’m thinking of connecting the veins and arteries to an external pump, oxygenating the blood artificially, feeding the head intravenously and so on. I realise that in practice you couldn’t connect everything up in time to stop the head dying, but ignoring that, is medical science up to the task of keeping a human head alive? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/2 "2007-07-17T22:19:44Z")
_"Bodies_ are decapitated; heads are _disembodied_." –_Spy_ magazine, ca. 1993, in reply to a letter complaining about the unannounced appearance in its pages of a “decapitated head”. I’m sorry, I don’t have an answer to your question, other than that I suspect medical science could _not_ keep a head minus its body alive. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/3 "2007-07-17T22:22:50Z")
The OP’s name seems really fitting for this thread topic. I do seem to remember seeing a video of a disembodied dog’s head being kept alive. I’m not sure if that was ruled a hoax, though. (And no idea about disembodied human heads.) ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/4 "2007-07-17T22:25:59Z")
There is the world’s most frightening video of a monkey whose head was decapitated and kept alive via a second monkey’s circulatory system. I’m having problems finding the video, but you will thank me if I don’t actually find it. I suppose you could do it with a heart lung machine instead. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/5 "2007-07-17T22:33:23Z")
[QUOTE=Beware of Doug] _"Bodies_ are decapitated; heads are _disembodied_." [/QUOTE] You’re right, of course :smack: . And what makes it annoying is that that’s \*precisely \*the sort of nitpick that I usually spot when someone else gets it wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/6 "2007-07-17T23:28:17Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] Inspired by the thread on extreme surgical procedures: I wonder, could a decapitated head be kept alive and functioning by connecting it to medical equipment? I’m thinking of connecting the veins and arteries to an external pump, oxygenating the blood artificially, feeding the head intravenously and so on. I realise that in practice you couldn’t connect everything up in time to stop the head dying, but ignoring that, is medical science up to the task of keeping a human head alive? [/QUOTE] I would say the technology to do this for a short while exists now, and that a conscious state could be obtained using a head perfused via a heart/lung machine. There is no problem connecting up everything in time–we stop hearts all the time and hook people up onto external pumps during surgery. Nothing in principle would prevent decapitating a body using the major sets of arteries and veins which supply the head. Current technology relies partly on cooling to keep the brain viable for any extended period of time on external pumps. A cooled brain would not have normal consciousness so there would only be a fairly short window of time if you warmed up the brain… Moreover the delicate balancing act required to keep blood thin enough to avoid clotting is very difficult to manage over time. People on external pumps (such as during bypass) tend to have neurologic problems that increase as pump time increases–probably micro strokes (local clots or bits of clotted blood that have been carried downstream and plugged up small vessels) which accumulate over time. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/7 "2007-07-17T23:37:37Z")
Saving Hitler’s brain again? Tsk-tsk-tsk… ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/8 "2007-07-17T23:56:27Z")
[QUOTE=Chief Pedant] I would say the technology to do this for a short while exists now, and that a conscious state could be obtained using a head perfused via a heart/lung machine. [/QUOTE] I saw this show called “Mythbusters” and they… Just kidding 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/9 "2007-07-18T00:14:02Z")
You have to be talking about more than just supplying the brain with oxygen. The lungs are just one of many organs involved in sustaining life. You would need to be able to control any number of homeostatic systems. I have not heard of any living body part or organ being kept alive for an extended period of time so my guess is that the same would be true for a head. You could probably do it for a while (day(s)) but not for a long term. It would be neat to try. Any volunteers? ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/10 "2007-07-18T00:24:18Z")
I saw a show on Discovery, or something of the like, where a boy was struck by a car and decapitated(so they said) and survived. His head wasn’t removed entirely from his body though,I don’t even think his skin was broken,but they did call it decapitation due to the internal injury. Wish I could remember more about it. Any one see that? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/11 "2007-07-18T00:28:12Z")
I want to see the monkey video! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/12 "2007-07-18T00:59:23Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] I saw a show on Discovery, or something of the like, where a boy was struck by a car and decapitated(so they said) and survived. His head wasn’t removed entirely from his body though,I don’t even think his skin was broken,but they did call it decapitation due to the internal injury. Wish I could remember more about it. Any one see that? [/QUOTE] This is not possible, so they must have been talking about a complete separation of a couple of vertebrae, or else the first vertebra with the skull–not a separation of the soft tissues… ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/13 "2007-07-18T01:01:31Z")
I heard about the same story, it was said that the boy suffered an internal decapitation but managed to survive and is making quite good progress. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/14 "2007-07-18T01:16:29Z")
Found the story: [http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/printer\_869.shtml](http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/printer_869.shtml) However, he admitted that he’s just a little nervous about what the future holds. > [@](#): > > That’s a far cry from April 10 when he was struck by a car while riding his bike. > > Doctors said Ricky suffered an “internal decapitation,” meaning that his skull was severed from the top of his spine. > > In addition, the ligaments attaching the skull to the spine were completely torn, leaving only skin and some muscle to hold the skull in place. > > Ricky was in a deep coma as surgeons at Phoenix Children’s went to work, reattaching his skull to his spine using metal rods, plates and screws. > > Ricky eventually awoke from his coma and regained use of his right leg and arm. > > Now he has partial use of his left leg, allowing him to walk. > > He eventually hopes to regain use of his left arm but acknowledges things will take time. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/15 "2007-07-18T01:23:16Z")
If I remember the monkey experiments correctly, they only lasted a couple of days and they were “alive” only in the clinical sense most of that time. They couldn’t do much monkey stuff. The whole thing was planned as well so you couldn’t do that with an accident victim. The brain would be long gone by the time it even got to the hospital let alone have a cutting edge team of surgeons ready to try an experiment on it. The answer is no as long as we are talking about anything meaningful in the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Hildo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Johnny\_Hildo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Hildo)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/16 "2007-07-18T01:24:42Z")
There’s a book called [If We Can Keep a Severed Head Alive…Discorporation and U.S. Patent 4,666,425](http://www.amazon.com/Keep-Severed-Head-Alive-Discorporation-Patent/dp/0942287029) which was written by a man who obtained a patent on a device which would theoretically do so. He never followed up on it. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/17 "2007-07-18T01:45:40Z")
[QUOTE=pool] Found the story: [http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/printer\_869.shtml](http://www.defrance.org/artman/publish/printer_869.shtml) However, he admitted that he’s just a little nervous about what the future holds. [/QUOTE] But his most important parts weren’t severed. His ligaments and his skull were. But one assumes his nerves, blood vessels, etc. weren’t. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/18 "2007-07-18T02:28:08Z")
[That patent](http://www.google.com/patents?id=DxktAAAAEBAJ&dq=patent:4666425&as_drrb_ap=q&as_minm_ap=1&as_miny_ap=2007&as_maxm_ap=1&as_maxy_ap=2007&as_drrb_is=q&as_minm_is=1&as_miny_is=2007&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2007) is the first thing I thought of too… ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/19 "2007-07-18T03:30:49Z")
[QUOTE=Bosda Di’Chi of Tricor] Saving Hitler’s brain again? Tsk-tsk-tsk… [/QUOTE] No, [Jan in the Pan](http://imdb.com/title/tt0052646/). ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2007, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189/20 "2007-07-18T04:16:24Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] If I remember the monkey experiments correctly…They couldn’t do much monkey stuff… [/QUOTE] Right, heads, by themselves, can’t fling feces around… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-medical-science-keep-a-decapitated-head-alive/412189.md?page=2)