The only case in history when the surgical operation ended 300% fatal
About 200-300 years ago, the main indicator of the surgeon’s skill was speed. The chance of a happy outcome of the operation directly depended on the speed of the Aesculapius. If you saw the leg for too long and without anesthesia (not to mention the fact that the wounds did not know how to disinfect), the patient will die from pain shock. Of course, in terms of the speed with which the surgeons of the past were operating with their instruments, there were their record holders. But the faster of all was operated by a certain Scot Robert Liston.
He was born in 1794 and died in 1847. He was called the “fastest knife in the West end”-he could amputate his leg in two and a half minutes. This is how an eyewitness describes the operations that he carried out:
“He was tall and operated on a green cloak and Wellington boots. He bounced around his half -fainting sweaty and belts to the patient’s couch as a duelist, turning to the students standing around him with a clock on chains: “Cut the time, gentlemen, check the time! ‘Everyone was ready to swear that the first wave of his knife almost coincided with the sound with which she drank in b1. To free both hands, he clamped a bloodied knife in his teeth.”
Nevertheless, do not think that all patients survived after his operations – rather, on the contrary. In those years, people tried to stay away from the doctors, and not at all in vain. Gangrene most often followed a visit to the surgeon – the need to sterilize tools and wounds has not yet been understood by doctors (but it is worth noting that it was Liston who was one of the first to use anesthesia).
Robert Liston
Liston had several of the most famous operations that he carried out. One of them was extremely effective – he managed to achieve 300% of death among those present. But we will not run forward – here is the list of his records:
Fourth place: In four minutes, Liston removed a 45-pound tumor in the patient’s crotch, which he drove in front of him on a wheelbarrow.
Third place: Liston argued with another doctor. The subject of the dispute was a red pulsating tumor on the neck of the boy. That it is, an abscess or aneurysm of the sleepy artery? “Ha! – exclaimed Liston impatiently?”He grabbed a knife from under the cloak and slashed the boy’s neck. The owner of the house in which the case took place described further events: “Arterial blood sprinkled in all directions, and the boy fell”. The patient has died, but his artery is still with us-you can look at it at the Museum of Pathologies at the Hospital of Universitic College.
Second place: Liston amputated the patient’s leg in two and a half minutes, but in a fit of enthusiasm he also grabbed the unfortunate scrotum.
And finally the first place: Liston amputated to the patient’s leg in two and a half minutes (the patient struck Gangren in the hospital; as I said, it was a logical outcome of the case in those days). In addition, at the same moment, he opened his fingers to the young assistant (who later died of gangrene). In addition, he touched the clothes of one of the observers with a knife, who imagined that the knife had been breaking through it through, after which the suspicious poor fellow died of fear. And this was precisely the only case in history when the surgical operation ended 300% fatal.