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Evangelos Constantinou, M.D. (Greek: Ευάγγελος Κωνσταντίνου) was a doctor at the Dhekelia SBA Memorial Hospital in Cyprus where Venom Snake was being monitored during his coma. Specializing in reconstructive surgery, Constantinou had been working at the hospital since at least March 12, 1979.[1]

Biography[]

Phantom Pain Incident[]

See also: Hospital Escape and Phantom Pain Incident

On February 29, 1984, three days after Snake's coming to, Constantinou arrived at his ward and conducted basic motor and memory tests, asking Snake to move his head and tell him his given name and date of birth. He then informed Snake about the fact that he had been in a coma for nine years. This triggered a shock in Snake which forced Constantinou to restrain him and call for nurse Alexandra Pikrammenos to sedate him.

On March 4, Constantinou enlightened Snake about the injuries he had sustained from the attack on Mother Base nine years earlier that placed him in a coma. He told him that there had been 108 foreign bodies inside his body, including fragments of human bone and teeth, as well as multiple pieces of shrapnel, rendering MRI-based examination impossible.

Although most of the foreign bodies could be removed successfully, the surgeons were unable to extract pieces of shrapnel which were close to Snake's heart and inside his cerebral cortex. Removal would have been likely to cause heart failure and brain hemmorages, triggering unavoidable physical and mental impairment.

Constantinou acknowledged that Snake's situation was no longer life-threatening, but that he would be likely to suffer from hallucinations. He also inferred that the accident resulted in Venom Snake's left arm being damaged to such a great degree that amputation became necessary, with the latter going into shock again upon verifying that his left arm was partially missing, thus forcing Constantinou and the nurse to restrain and sedate him once more.

On March 9, Constantinou revealed that Venom Snake was the subject of a manhunt and that plastic surgery was required in order to hide his true identity.

Two days after conducting the facial surgery, Constantinou showed Snake two pictures portraying various Militaires Sans Frontières members. He also gave him the name "Ahab" as a cover identity. He did not notice that an assassin had entered the room; the assassin (who would come to be known as Quiet) strangled Nurse Pikrammenos to death with a garrote. The assassin then strangled Constantinou whilst he was holding a mirror for Snake to see his own face. In an attempt to defend himself he drew a handgun and accidentally kicked Snake off his bed before he died.

Behind the scenes[]

Evangelos Constantinou first appeared in the 2012 Spike Video Game Awards trailer, The Phantom Pain, back when it was advertised as being a separate IP that Swedish developer "Moby Dick Studio" was allegedly making.[2][3] During this time, one of the clues some fans and sources used to indicate that The Phantom Pain was really a Metal Gear game was the fact that they thought that the doctor bore a resemblance to Kio Marv.[4] This was later revealed to have been a coincidence. He later appeared in the same scene as in the VGA trailer for the GDC 2013 trailer of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, only this time, he also addressed how long the patient (Big Boss) was in a coma.[5]

Doctor's name

Constantinou's photo ID badge.

Hideo Kojima stated that Constantinou was modeled after British-born Japanese-based actor Ian Moore (who was Constantinou's motion capture actor) in a podcast after The Phantom Pain was announced as Metal Gear Solid V. However, it has been noted that he bears a strong resemblance to real life doctor Sergio Canavero, known for his plans of performing the first human head transplant. There also have been theories that Canavero's plans were actually a marketing ploy for The Phantom Pain. In response, Canavero denied that he had any contact with Konami, and stated that he would notify his attorney concerning the matter.[6]

Although Constantinou is not verbally named in The Phantom Pain, his name can be read on his photo ID badge, as is the case with the nurse that assisted him (Alexandra Pikrammenos).

Notes and references[]

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