This is not for the faint of heart.

In 1940, Soviet scientists were doing some rather uncomfortable experiments in the revival of organs, and then whole organisms, after death. In the video they demonstrate a dog’s heart, lungs, and then head, and finally move on to a whole dog. It demonstrates an early heart-lung machine (called an autojector in the film), which is now a common fixture in open-heart surgery.

Part 1:

In part 2, it gets a little more dramatic. A dog is “dead” by any normal definition for 10 minutes. Then it is revived.

Part 2:

This leads to at least two questions: 1) Why isn’t there any apparent brain damage in dogs from being “dead” for so long? and 2) We currently usethings like CPR, but could more lives be saved if more technology were applied as a person is “dying”, or even shortly after “death”?

More on the history of heart-lung machines: John Heysham Gibbon – Heart Lung Machine – Pump Oxygenator

[See previous BFTP]