the assassination of President Garfield

[low_delta]

Most historians and medical experts now believe that Garfield probably would have survived his wound had the doctors attending him been more capable. Several inserted their unsterilized fingers into the wound to probe for the bullet, and one doctor punctured Garfield's liver in doing so. This alone would not have brought about death as the liver is one of the few organs in the human body that can regenerate itself. However, this physician probably introduced Streptococcus bacteria into the President's body and that caused blood poisoning for which at that time there were no antibiotics. Most modern physicians familiar with the case state that Garfield would have easily survived his wounds with the medical care available even 20 years later.

Comments

[seamusd.livejournal.com]

That's just so sad. Had he survived, we never would have gotten involved in a land war in Asia, among other things, and life in these United States would be very different indeed.