The Scottish Surgeon Who Amassed a 300% Mortality Rate in One Operation

The unfortunate story of the world's deadliest amputation

Great Success

Amputations during the 19th century were sketchy business. Generally speaking, about 1 in 4 patients would die either during the operation or afterward due to infection, which is far from ideal.

But fear not, on the 28th of October, 1794, God graced Scotland with a beautiful light in the dark world of surgery—(soon to be Dr.) Robert Liston. As he progressed through his career, Dr. Liston gained a reputation as being a phenomenal surgeon. Most of his operations were before anesthesia, which meant the patient had to be conscious the entire time—making speed paramount to success. And speedy Dr. Liston was. At his fastest, he could amputate a leg in a mere 2 and a half minutes! Along with that, Dr. Liston also regularly washed his hands and cleaned his equipment—which was unusual for the time.

Due to all of these factors, Dr. Liston’s patients only had a 1 in 10 chance of dying.

Don’t you think that’s outstanding! Well everybody else did too. People began paying Dr. Liston to watch him perform amputations (why anybody would want to watch that is beyond me.)

Preposterous Travesty

Dr. Liston, his two assistants, and a few spectators were huddled in a cramped operating room. As Dr. Liston finished his preparation, a hush fell over the spectators, and they waited with increasing anticipation.

But Dr. Liston had mastered the art of amputation showmanship, and for what seemed like an eternity, he stood dormant over the patient. He waited for the suspense to reach its greatest, and when it did, he acted with his trademark celerity.

He must have been having an off day because while swiftly unsheathing his knife, he accidentally cut the coat of the nearest bystander. The poor lad instantly died of fright. But being the professional that he was, Dr. Liston pushed that to the back of his mind and cut down on the patient's leg.

Regrettably, his aim that morning was a little erroneous and he sliced off his assistant's fingers in the process of amputating the patient's leg. Extra Regrettably he didn’t properly clean his tools that morning and both his assistant and his patient died of infection the following day—making Dr. Liston the only person ever to have a 300% mortality rate for one operation. A somber trinity, three deaths in one operation.

Regardless, Dr. Liston saved more lives than he took and overall was a positive influence on medicine as a whole. He would later go on to be the first doctor to ever perform an amputation while his patient was under anesthesia along with many other achievements (such as accidentally castrating one of his later patients—awkward…)