Beheaded human body can stay alive and kicking

One of the issues of a New York medical bulletin dating back to 1888 contains description of an amazing case of a sailor who was badly injured while on duty. The sailor worked at a river tugboat. One day his tugboat was towing a barge loaded with bulky boxes, which were stacked on the deck in two tiers, one above the other. The sailor was positioned on the bow of the barge as his tugboat was nearing a bridge with a low archway. By some unfortunate twist of fate, the sailor decided to check lashings on the top level boxes at that point. He stuck his head above the boxes and began examining the lashings. His eyes were looking aft as the tugboat moved up closer to the bridge. The sailor was completely unaware of the imminent danger looming a few yards away. A sharp-edged lower beam of the bridge span ran against the sailor’s head, cutting a sizeable piece off his skull, approximately two inches above his right eye.

	Human body can function without head (krunker.com)
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The rest of the story reads like a miracle. The sailor was still alive when taken to hospital two hours later. Doctors reckoned that the patient would die anyway – nearly one fourth of his head was gone. They were applying bandages to his massive wound when he opened his eyes and asked them what really happened to him. Then he got off the operating table and asked for his coveralls. Needless to say, the patient was restrained and admitted to a hospital ward, in which he spent the next two months. He reportedly felt fully recovered and reported back to his vessel. Apart from occasional headaches and dizziness, the sailor had no complaints about his health. He suffered a minor stroke 26 years after surviving that bloodcurdling accident. The sailor’s left arm and leg were partly paralyzed as a result. Doctors also put down in his case history that the patient had developed a tendency for hysteria. Taking into account the fact that the case was reported at the end of 19^th century, one may have doubts about solid scientific evidence behind the story. However, a number of similarly amazing cases entered medical records much later.

In 1935, a child was delivered in St. Vincent Hospital in New York. The child was reported to have had no brain in his head. Despite the total absence of brain, the child somehow managed to last for 27 days. The child’s behavior seemed normal; he ate, slept and cried just like any other newborn baby did. Nobody suspected there was something wrong about his head until an autopsy was performed.

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