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Who knows the story of Robert Liston (for laughs)
Surgery with a 300% mortality rate
by Dr. John Cocker
The risk of dying from surgery has dropped dramatically in the last hundred years. In Victorian times, death was a routine outcome for many operations. Even Hippocrates, in a part of the oath less publicised, advised to get the fee before the surgery. In one record-breaking amputation, a British Surgeon managed to achieve a mortality rate of 300%.
Dr. Robert Liston practised in London’s fashionable Mayfair district. He was famous, flamboyant and vain, and his hallmark was speed.
In the days before anaesthesia, it was important to get the operation over with quickly, even though Dr. Liston was one of the first to use anaesthesia, which he referred to as a “Yankee Dodge”. He failed to realise that this made speed obsolete.
The normal proceed ure was for the patient to be sedated with huge amounts of morphine and alcohol, and to be firly strapped down. The surgeon would then hold the “amputation knife”, which was like a 10” kitchen knife, pointing towards himself, with the blade pointing down. He would pass the knife under the patient’s leg as far as possible.
Dr. Liston would announce the beginning of surgery with the cry, “Time me gentlemen”, and would then make a rapid circular cut down to the bone, called the “coup de maître”. He would then put the knife in his teeth, grab a saw, and cut through the bone. Next he would clamp and tie the artery with a special forceps he had designed.
His best time was just over two minutes. On this occasion his coup de maître was so powerful that his unfortunate assistant, who was holding the leg, lost two fingers, and a spectator (yes they has an audience, after all it was called the “operating theatre”), had his coat cut and was splattered with blood.
Although the spectator was not injured, the poor man was so frightened that he had a heart attack, and died on the spot.
Dr. Liston’s wounded assistant, subsequently died of hospital gangrene, which was not unusual, and them the patient died of the same cause.
That’s the record, a 300% mortality rate, and with the improvements in sterility, it will likely stand.
by Dr. John Cocker
The risk of dying from surgery has dropped dramatically in the last hundred years. In Victorian times, death was a routine outcome for many operations. Even Hippocrates, in a part of the oath less publicised, advised to get the fee before the surgery. In one record-breaking amputation, a British Surgeon managed to achieve a mortality rate of 300%.
Dr. Robert Liston practised in London’s fashionable Mayfair district. He was famous, flamboyant and vain, and his hallmark was speed.
In the days before anaesthesia, it was important to get the operation over with quickly, even though Dr. Liston was one of the first to use anaesthesia, which he referred to as a “Yankee Dodge”. He failed to realise that this made speed obsolete.
The normal proceed ure was for the patient to be sedated with huge amounts of morphine and alcohol, and to be firly strapped down. The surgeon would then hold the “amputation knife”, which was like a 10” kitchen knife, pointing towards himself, with the blade pointing down. He would pass the knife under the patient’s leg as far as possible.
Dr. Liston would announce the beginning of surgery with the cry, “Time me gentlemen”, and would then make a rapid circular cut down to the bone, called the “coup de maître”. He would then put the knife in his teeth, grab a saw, and cut through the bone. Next he would clamp and tie the artery with a special forceps he had designed.
His best time was just over two minutes. On this occasion his coup de maître was so powerful that his unfortunate assistant, who was holding the leg, lost two fingers, and a spectator (yes they has an audience, after all it was called the “operating theatre”), had his coat cut and was splattered with blood.
Although the spectator was not injured, the poor man was so frightened that he had a heart attack, and died on the spot.
Dr. Liston’s wounded assistant, subsequently died of hospital gangrene, which was not unusual, and them the patient died of the same cause.
That’s the record, a 300% mortality rate, and with the improvements in sterility, it will likely stand.
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