Kinyonyoke
JF-Expert Member
- Oct 4, 2016
- 3,500
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Robert Liston was a 19th century Scottish surgeon. During his lifetime, he gained a well-deserved reputation as a strict, but bold and efficient surgeon — traits which were highly valued during that time. This is because there were no anaesthetics around then, so speed made all the difference when it came to likelihood of survival and pain.
So efficient he was at his job, he could perform an amputation in less than a minute. That’s not to say he was a mad knife hacker though, as he recognised that a comprehensive understanding of anatomy and pathology was the way to go, so as to avoid unnecessary surgery. He was also, mostly, a role model for aseptic practice, being one of the few surgeons of the time to wash his hands before every operation. Not only that, but he also wore a new apron for each one too, despite it being common practice for his contemporaries to recycle the same dirty, blood-stained apron. He even shaved surgical sites prior to operating, something that has only been recognised as reducing likelihood of infection within the past few decades.
Though a trailblazer he was, there were one or two pitfalls in his career, as to be expected of a bold doctor working in the Victorian era.
The most famous one was an operation with a 300% mortality rate. In 1847, Liston managed to perform an amputation within two minutes and thirty seconds. However, he got so focused on the speed that he slipped up. When he brought the knife down onto the patient’s leg, not only did he amputate that, but he also accidentally amputated his surgical assistant’s fingers. Then when he brought the knife back up again, he clipped the clothing of an onlooking elderly man. It didn’t actually cut him, but he apparently thought it had, and ended up collapsing from fright.
Both the patient and the surgical assistant died of hospital gangrene, and the elderly man died from what was discovered to be a heart attack. The whole thing was so calamitous that it sounds like something from a Carry On film!
So efficient he was at his job, he could perform an amputation in less than a minute. That’s not to say he was a mad knife hacker though, as he recognised that a comprehensive understanding of anatomy and pathology was the way to go, so as to avoid unnecessary surgery. He was also, mostly, a role model for aseptic practice, being one of the few surgeons of the time to wash his hands before every operation. Not only that, but he also wore a new apron for each one too, despite it being common practice for his contemporaries to recycle the same dirty, blood-stained apron. He even shaved surgical sites prior to operating, something that has only been recognised as reducing likelihood of infection within the past few decades.
Though a trailblazer he was, there were one or two pitfalls in his career, as to be expected of a bold doctor working in the Victorian era.
The most famous one was an operation with a 300% mortality rate. In 1847, Liston managed to perform an amputation within two minutes and thirty seconds. However, he got so focused on the speed that he slipped up. When he brought the knife down onto the patient’s leg, not only did he amputate that, but he also accidentally amputated his surgical assistant’s fingers. Then when he brought the knife back up again, he clipped the clothing of an onlooking elderly man. It didn’t actually cut him, but he apparently thought it had, and ended up collapsing from fright.
Both the patient and the surgical assistant died of hospital gangrene, and the elderly man died from what was discovered to be a heart attack. The whole thing was so calamitous that it sounds like something from a Carry On film!
