Headless Chicken lives for 18 months

This is a real story of a Headless chicken which lived for 18 months after its head was removed by a  farmer.  Mike the Headless Chicken also known as Miracle Mike was a chicken which lived for 18 months after his head was removed.  

On 10th September, 1945, the farmer LLoyd Olsen of Colorado in USA wanted to cut a chicken for the dinner.  So he went to the yard and chosen a 5 month old chicken named Mike  The axe missed the main Jugular vein leaving one ear and most of the brain stem intact.  

Even then Mike was able to balance and walk and the bird did not die.  So Mr., Olsen was surprised and decided to continue to take care of the chicken for ever.  He started feeding the chicken with milk and water via an eye dropper and also small grains of corn.

  

Mike was able to jump to highest perches without falling.  His crowing was something like gargling sound made in his throat.  Mike spent his time attempting to search for food with his neck.

In March 1947 at a hotel in Phoenix while traveling back home from tour, Mike started choking in the middle of night.  Mr. Olsen left his feeding and cleaning syringes at home, he could not save Mike.   People say that the chicken could not take enough air properly to be able to breathe; and so choked to death in the hotel.

 In the Post Mortem, it was found that the axe had missed the carotid artery and a clot prevented Mike from bleeding to death.  Even though most of his head was removed, most of his brain stem and one ear were left on his body.  As the basic functions like breathing, heart rate etc. are controlled by the brain stem, Mike was able to remain healthy.

The scientist concluded that Mike had no problem by losing his head aside from loss of sensory input from tongue and eyes.  The farmer missed an ear as well as brain stem.  So Mike could hear also.

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