WEBVTT - Why Was Speed Surgery a Thing, and How Fast Could It Get?

0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:05.160
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,

0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.880
<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Bogle Bomb here on your mark.

0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:16.320
<v Speaker 1>It's set. Cut speed surgery was once a thing, and

0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:20.480
<v Speaker 1>even scarier. It existed out of necessity because anesthesia had

0:00:20.520 --> 0:00:24.680
<v Speaker 1>not yet been discovered. Modern surgeons take their time, often

0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:29.680
<v Speaker 1>spending hours painstakingly preserving a sterile environment, making measured decisions,

0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:33.199
<v Speaker 1>and double checking their work to ensure success. But not

0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:36.360
<v Speaker 1>so long ago, surgery had to be quick because, in

0:00:36.400 --> 0:00:39.240
<v Speaker 1>addition to the prolong mint of pain and the horror

0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.559
<v Speaker 1>of being awake while a doctor was operating on you,

0:00:42.040 --> 0:00:46.000
<v Speaker 1>techniques to prevent blood loss and give transfusions were practically

0:00:46.000 --> 0:00:49.959
<v Speaker 1>non existent. Plus germ theory hadn't been invented yet, so

0:00:50.080 --> 0:00:52.960
<v Speaker 1>open air and all the breath and grime that comes

0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.320
<v Speaker 1>with it were allowed to circulate around the operating table. Overall,

0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.920
<v Speaker 1>at the time, the quicker the surgery, the better the

0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.560
<v Speaker 1>odds of survival. Although all surgeons of the day had

0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:07.280
<v Speaker 1>to be pretty quick with the cut. Scottish surgeon Robert Liston,

0:01:07.400 --> 0:01:11.440
<v Speaker 1>who lived from seventeen to eighteen forty seven, achieved fame

0:01:11.480 --> 0:01:14.959
<v Speaker 1>and notoriety for both his surgical skills and his ego

0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:17.880
<v Speaker 1>and he's still known today as the fastest surgeon of

0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.440
<v Speaker 1>the eighteen hundreds. A. Liston was in high demand because

0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.240
<v Speaker 1>he only lost one out of ten patients on the

0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.000
<v Speaker 1>table during his time at London's University College Hospital, compared

0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.320
<v Speaker 1>with a mortality rate of one out of four patients

0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:34.240
<v Speaker 1>at another nearby hospital. Plus, if you absolutely had to

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:36.200
<v Speaker 1>get your leg cut off, you'd want it to be

0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:41.160
<v Speaker 1>done quickly and with total confidence. Right Liston reportedly had

0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.000
<v Speaker 1>speed and self assurance in spades. As was common at

0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:47.920
<v Speaker 1>the time, his operating room was also a theater where

0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:51.080
<v Speaker 1>other medical personnel and even spectators off the street could

0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:54.520
<v Speaker 1>come and watch surgery being performed, but Liston had a

0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.680
<v Speaker 1>reputation of something near a carnival barker. He often goaded

0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:03.280
<v Speaker 1>before beginning time me gentlemen. Fellow surgeons were sometimes resentful

0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:06.720
<v Speaker 1>of his cocky attitude, particularly because he liked to take

0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:09.080
<v Speaker 1>on patients who had been written off as hopeless by

0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:13.120
<v Speaker 1>other doctors. Whatever their opinion of his personality, his ability

0:02:13.160 --> 0:02:15.760
<v Speaker 1>to amputate a limb start to finish in twenty eight

0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.120
<v Speaker 1>seconds from the initial cut to the very last stitch

0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.320
<v Speaker 1>garnered a certain respect in the medical community and among patients.

0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:25.960
<v Speaker 1>Medical historian Dr Richard Gordon called him the fastest knife

0:02:26.000 --> 0:02:29.040
<v Speaker 1>in the West End of London. Of course, his lightning

0:02:29.080 --> 0:02:32.600
<v Speaker 1>quick surgical skills resulted either in some major mishaps or

0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:36.680
<v Speaker 1>exceptionally tall tales, depending on who you ask. His most

0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:40.720
<v Speaker 1>notorious alleged mistake possibly claimed the lives of three people

0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:43.880
<v Speaker 1>in his operating room, the patient, a surgical assistant, and

0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.160
<v Speaker 1>a spectator. The legend goes that he was amputating a

0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.080
<v Speaker 1>man's legs so fast that he inadvertently cut off his

0:02:50.120 --> 0:02:54.760
<v Speaker 1>assistant's fingers and then slashed the bystanders coat while changing instruments.

0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:57.600
<v Speaker 1>Both the assistant and patient were said to have died

0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:01.040
<v Speaker 1>from resulting gang green infections, while the eyestander died of

0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.840
<v Speaker 1>shock from fear that had been stabbed. It's considered by

0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:07.160
<v Speaker 1>those who believe it's true to be the only surgery

0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:12.000
<v Speaker 1>in history with a three mortality rate mishaps aside a,

0:03:12.120 --> 0:03:15.840
<v Speaker 1>Liston was hardly a one trick pony. He contributed several

0:03:15.880 --> 0:03:19.080
<v Speaker 1>innovations to the medical community, such as locking forceps and

0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:22.520
<v Speaker 1>the Listons splint, which remains in use today to stabilize

0:03:22.520 --> 0:03:26.040
<v Speaker 1>femur breaks, and he's credited with bringing the beginnings of

0:03:26.120 --> 0:03:29.280
<v Speaker 1>anesthesia to Europe, having heard about the use of ether

0:03:29.480 --> 0:03:33.040
<v Speaker 1>in dentistry and surgeries in the United States. In fact,

0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.960
<v Speaker 1>he was the very first European surgeon to use ether

0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:39.880
<v Speaker 1>to sedate a patient. Patient, Frederick Churchill, who required a

0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:43.480
<v Speaker 1>leg amputation, reportedly woke up several minutes after the operation

0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:46.720
<v Speaker 1>was over, only to inquire about when the surgery was

0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.440
<v Speaker 1>going to begin. Nowadays, the same sort of amputation that

0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:53.400
<v Speaker 1>Churchill underwent would require a minimum of two to three

0:03:53.400 --> 0:03:56.920
<v Speaker 1>hours in the operating room, followed by a hospitalization of

0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:00.760
<v Speaker 1>five to fourteen days. Sadly, for List And a sailing

0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.600
<v Speaker 1>accident took his life less than one year after Churchill's

0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.760
<v Speaker 1>groundbreaking amputation, but either continued to be used experimentally in

0:04:07.800 --> 0:04:11.920
<v Speaker 1>operating rooms, although it's high flammability potential and toxic nature

0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:16.080
<v Speaker 1>eventually became apparent. Fortunately, it was finally replaced with the

0:04:16.120 --> 0:04:19.280
<v Speaker 1>beginnings of modern anesthesiology, which many of us have grown

0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:29.320
<v Speaker 1>to appreciate, perhaps especially after hearing this episode. Today's episode

0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:31.640
<v Speaker 1>was written by Alia Hoyt and produced by Tyler Clang.

0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:33.880
<v Speaker 1>For more on this and lots of other quick topics,

0:04:33.960 --> 0:04:36.720
<v Speaker 1>visit How Stuff Works Dot com Brainstuff is production of

0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.080
<v Speaker 1>I heart Radio. For more podcasts to my heart Radio,

0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.960
<v Speaker 1>visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you

0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:43.240
<v Speaker 1>listen to your favorite shows.