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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

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Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle Bomb here on your mark.

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Speaker 1: It's set. Cut speed surgery was once a thing, and

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Speaker 1: even scarier. It existed out of necessity because anesthesia had

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Speaker 1: not yet been discovered. Modern surgeons take their time, often

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Speaker 1: spending hours painstakingly preserving a sterile environment, making measured decisions,

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Speaker 1: and double checking their work to ensure success. But not

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Speaker 1: so long ago, surgery had to be quick because, in

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Speaker 1: addition to the prolong mint of pain and the horror

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Speaker 1: of being awake while a doctor was operating on you,

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Speaker 1: techniques to prevent blood loss and give transfusions were practically

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Speaker 1: non existent. Plus germ theory hadn't been invented yet, so

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Speaker 1: open air and all the breath and grime that comes

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Speaker 1: with it were allowed to circulate around the operating table. Overall,

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Speaker 1: at the time, the quicker the surgery, the better the

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Speaker 1: odds of survival. Although all surgeons of the day had

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Speaker 1: to be pretty quick with the cut. Scottish surgeon Robert Liston,

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Speaker 1: who lived from seventeen to eighteen forty seven, achieved fame

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Speaker 1: and notoriety for both his surgical skills and his ego

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Speaker 1: and he's still known today as the fastest surgeon of

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Speaker 1: the eighteen hundreds. A. Liston was in high demand because

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Speaker 1: he only lost one out of ten patients on the

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Speaker 1: table during his time at London's University College Hospital, compared

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Speaker 1: with a mortality rate of one out of four patients

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Speaker 1: at another nearby hospital. Plus, if you absolutely had to

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Speaker 1: get your leg cut off, you'd want it to be

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Speaker 1: done quickly and with total confidence. Right Liston reportedly had

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Speaker 1: speed and self assurance in spades. As was common at

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Speaker 1: the time, his operating room was also a theater where

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Speaker 1: other medical personnel and even spectators off the street could

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Speaker 1: come and watch surgery being performed, but Liston had a

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Speaker 1: reputation of something near a carnival barker. He often goaded

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Speaker 1: before beginning time me gentlemen. Fellow surgeons were sometimes resentful

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Speaker 1: of his cocky attitude, particularly because he liked to take

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Speaker 1: on patients who had been written off as hopeless by

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Speaker 1: other doctors. Whatever their opinion of his personality, his ability

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Speaker 1: to amputate a limb start to finish in twenty eight

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Speaker 1: seconds from the initial cut to the very last stitch

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Speaker 1: garnered a certain respect in the medical community and among patients.

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Speaker 1: Medical historian Dr Richard Gordon called him the fastest knife

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Speaker 1: in the West End of London. Of course, his lightning

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Speaker 1: quick surgical skills resulted either in some major mishaps or

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Speaker 1: exceptionally tall tales, depending on who you ask. His most

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Speaker 1: notorious alleged mistake possibly claimed the lives of three people

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Speaker 1: in his operating room, the patient, a surgical assistant, and

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Speaker 1: a spectator. The legend goes that he was amputating a

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Speaker 1: man's legs so fast that he inadvertently cut off his

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Speaker 1: assistant's fingers and then slashed the bystanders coat while changing instruments.

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Speaker 1: Both the assistant and patient were said to have died

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Speaker 1: from resulting gang green infections, while the eyestander died of

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Speaker 1: shock from fear that had been stabbed. It's considered by

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Speaker 1: those who believe it's true to be the only surgery

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Speaker 1: in history with a three mortality rate mishaps aside a,

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Speaker 1: Liston was hardly a one trick pony. He contributed several

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Speaker 1: innovations to the medical community, such as locking forceps and

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Speaker 1: the Listons splint, which remains in use today to stabilize

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Speaker 1: femur breaks, and he's credited with bringing the beginnings of

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Speaker 1: anesthesia to Europe, having heard about the use of ether

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Speaker 1: in dentistry and surgeries in the United States. In fact,

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Speaker 1: he was the very first European surgeon to use ether

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Speaker 1: to sedate a patient. Patient, Frederick Churchill, who required a

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Speaker 1: leg amputation, reportedly woke up several minutes after the operation

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Speaker 1: was over, only to inquire about when the surgery was

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Speaker 1: going to begin. Nowadays, the same sort of amputation that

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Speaker 1: Churchill underwent would require a minimum of two to three

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Speaker 1: hours in the operating room, followed by a hospitalization of

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Speaker 1: five to fourteen days. Sadly, for List And a sailing

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Speaker 1: accident took his life less than one year after Churchill's

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Speaker 1: groundbreaking amputation, but either continued to be used experimentally in

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Speaker 1: operating rooms, although it's high flammability potential and toxic nature

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Speaker 1: eventually became apparent. Fortunately, it was finally replaced with the

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Speaker 1: beginnings of modern anesthesiology, which many of us have grown

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Speaker 1: to appreciate, perhaps especially after hearing this episode. Today's episode

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Speaker 1: was written by Alia Hoyt and produced by Tyler Clang.

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Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other quick topics,

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Speaker 1: visit How Stuff Works Dot com Brainstuff is production of

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Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.