Robert Liston - Blog Posts

True scary story:

In 1800s London, a surgeon named Robert Liston became somewhat of a local celebrity through his use of brute force and speed when performing operations, skills that were vital to the survival of a patient before anesthesia was discovered. Liston could remove your leg in less than 30 seconds and to keep both his hands free, he would hold the bloody knife between his teeth while working (tasty).

But just because Liston was good didn't mean he was perfect. One time, he accidentally sliced off his patient's bollock along with the leg he was amputating. Legends say his biggest mess up though happened when he worked so quickly, he cut off three of his assistant's fingers and while switching blades sliced through a spectator's coat. Both the assistant and the patient later died of gangrene and the unfortunate bystander died on the spot from fright. If the stories are true, that would mean this is the only surgery in history with reported 300% fatality rate.

So yeah, this surgeon killed three people in one operation.