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We have something similar to what you describe coded in our mud.
The concept is called 'segmented' or 'fused' mobs, where each mob of this type consists of several elements; a 'fusehead' and any number of segments that can be designed any way you want.
The segmented mob appears to the player as one single creature when looked at, but each segment has its own attack and can also be looked at separately. If you kill a segment, the rest of the mob keeps fighting, if you kill the head, the segments die too.
It's a pretty nifty feature, which I have used for mythical monsters such as the multiheaded Scylla, but also for things like 'a swarm of bees', 'a flock of sharks' or 'a pack of wolves'.
I guess the same concept could be applied to body-parts, even we haven't used it in that way yet, mainly because our fight messages would make it look a bit silly. But I guess these could be adapted too.
If you talk to our coder Mordecai, he might explain how the code works better than I can, I am basically just a builder.
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