The Origin Of Weird: Robert Liston and his 300% Mortality Rate
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Podchaser Would you believe a surgeon could accidentally kill three people in one operation? Welcome to the blood-soaked world of pre-anesthesia surgery through the story of Robert Liston, the fastest knife in the West End of London.
Before the merciful darkness of anesthesia, surgery was a waking nightmare where patients remained fully conscious as surgeons cut through flesh and bone. In this harrowing landscape, Scottish surgeon Robert Liston emerged as a controversial medical hero. What made him special? While most surgeons wore blood-stained aprons like macabre trophies, Liston scrubbed his hands and instruments decades before germ theory existed. But his true claim to fame was speed—he could amputate a leg in just 28 seconds, a mercy in an era where surgical pain was unbearable.
Yet Liston's lightning-fast approach created the stuff of medical legend. During one particularly frenzied operation, he allegedly managed to amputate a patient's leg while accidentally removing the patient's testicles, slicing off his assistant's fingers, and cutting a spectator's coat—causing such shock that the bystander dropped dead on the spot. With the patient and assistant later dying from infections, this became the only known operation with a 300% mortality rate. Though this gruesome tale first appeared in the 1980s and lacks contemporary evidence, it perfectly captures the chaotic reality of early 19th-century medicine.
Despite these grisly stories, Liston's contributions to modern surgery were immense. He became the first surgeon in Europe to use ether anesthesia publicly in 1846, helping usher in a new era where speed would no longer be medicine's primary mercy. His story serves as a vivid reminder of how far we've come—and why you should be thankful for modern medical practices the next time you need surgery.
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0:16 oh, hey there, oh hey there. How are you? I am well how are you? I'm good, I am am Bradley, I am Kate. This is the Origin of Weird by the History Buffoons. Yeah, it is yeah. How are you today? I'm doing well. Excellent. Sipping on a beer Sipping on a beer. It's a nice day out, a little warmer than it was the last few days, but it's not too shabby. Yeah, my lawn needs a good haircut. So does mine. Yeah, I got behind because it was so hot and it rained a fuck ton. Then I finally mowed it and it was so long and I felt like it looks so bad and, uh, it definitely I need to cut it again already, and so I'm already behind when I wanted to recut it.
0:58 But and then holiday weekend. Holiday weekend so that doesn't help, obviously, but no, it's fucking nice out right now. It's a lot better than what it's been with the heat. And your son who was on an episode of Origin of Weird. For what was it? Mayor Lincoln, the Goat Yep. He is turning seven. I can't believe it. Yes, holy shit, holy shit, it, holy shit. He uh, his uh. Well, by the time this airs it, he'll have been seven, four, uh, six days. Yeah, holy shit, fuck, I'm a fucking first grader. Yeah, you do. That is wild. I can't believe that okay, so this is a little bit of a shorter story.
1:42 That's all right, but I still think it's excellent. I mean Mayor Lincoln, the goat was short, that was excellent. But that was still really fun doing it with Xavier. That was two ago, but you know. Either way, excuse me, he just burped. We are going to talk about Robert Liston. Robert Liston. He was a surgeon. He was a Scottish, he was a Scottish-born surgeon, okay. In the days before anesthesia. Oh shit. When surgery was not just dangerous but it was Deadly and agony. Oh my goodness. Oh, I'm sure of that too, yeah, so what year are we talking about? So we are in the late 1700s early 1800s.
2:24 Yeah, okay, gotcha, yeah. So in um the late 1700s, early like early 1800s. Yeah, okay, gotcha, yeah um. So patients remained wide awake oh boy as knives would saw through flesh and bone so did they have to, like, did they have to basically strap them down? I would assume I'm sorry if I'm just laying there, not strapped into a table. It is your reflex. Yeah, you're going to be like and no, I couldn't do that. I would need to be strapped down and I would still be fucking wriggling in those restraints and shit. Can you imagine being a surgeon and working around the screens and the blood loss and the little movements that they're able to get in?
3:09 I feel like a lot of early surgeons were probably pretty sadistic though, and they're like yes, don't you think I don't know? I mean, I don't know either, but I just feel like that's a possibility. Just say it. At the time, about only one in four patients Survived, didn't survive. One in four didn't survive. So three out of four did. Three out of four. I mean, that's a pretty good batting average. It's all right Batting 750. It's all right, I'd like Sal Frulich to do that. But Liston did better, oh Only one in ten. He had five out of four. Only one in ten died. Wow, that's really good, 900%. Mm-hmm, and that was a pretty big achievement for the times Well late 1700s, early 1800s Fuck, that's huge.
3:56 There were two reasons why he was quote-unquote successful. Okay, what's the first? He was unusually clean. So he washed his hands. Surgeons wore blood-stained aprons like trophies. Which is just wild if you think about it. And they were the ones that thought the hand-washing was unnecessary. Why does Semmelweis keep coming? up. I know he really does. Seriously, liston scrubbed his hands and washed his instruments. I'm sorry if I've got and wash his instruments. I'm sorry If I've got blood on my instruments. I'm not going to know, because if you take a fork and you use it, you're going to wash that fork for the next time. Why wouldn't you do that for scalpels?
4:37 I don't, yeah, I don't want like yesterday's, whatever on my shrimp scampi today or shrimp alfredo today? yeah, exactly fuck. I mean it's just funny because obviously the times were quite different. They just didn't know about like transfer disease, stuff like that and whatever um ignace sam levice did not, uh was not a thing. Or, like his, his discovery wasn't a thing. At this point, because he was still later in the 1800s, correct yeah, if I'm not mistaken, he was mid-18, like 1840 something. Yeah what was coming to mind yeah um, I mean, that's still later in the 1800s, but okay anyways. Um no, you're right, a lot of them wore it as a trophy, kind of like look at me, I'm a successful surgeon, I got blood all over blood all over me.
5:24 Is that really successful if you've got that much blood loss on you? yeah, but if only one in four died, that's way better than I thought the number was, because, holy shit, I thought a lot more would have died from that yeah, but all right. Um, I'm wondering, did I even read that? Yeah, yeah, one in four didn't survive, okay, yeah. So the second reason yeah, that he was so different. He prided himself on speed not accuracy, oh wait he could amputate a leg in just two and a half minutes.
6:06 That's fucking insane. Some accounts claim that at one point he did it in 28 seconds. How? I don't know. I mean, I'm just picturing his arm like in fast forward motion going, you'd have to clamp off the arteries and stitch them back together. I guess it's an amputation. He'd have to close them up. Well, I would assume he had a tourniquet on the leg. You said yeah, you know, because you're going to have to have a tourniquet. Yeah, to stop the blood flow. I don't know 28 seconds to saw off a leg.
6:49 He also relished in the drama that came with it. Okay, he literally would have like an audience, other worker, other like co-workers and students and other spectators that would come, come and watch him and during some of his surgeries he would literally say quote time me, gentlemen, time me. Wasn't that a big thing back then, though, where I picture what the fuck movie is it I'm drawing a blank at the moment they had, like you know, their table in the middle and then it was almost like at a college setting, if you will, and they're teaching kind of thing, and then they would have like it was like a circular room for the most part yeah. And they had raised seating. Yeah, I've seen that too, yeah. There's a specific movie I'm thinking of and I can't remember it, but they have a brief mention or they have a brief scene in Outlander when she's trying to learn how to be a doctor in a room full of men.
7:41 They were in seats that were kind of like amphitheater type. Yeah, for the most part. I've seen that and I know there's some other things I'm thinking of, but it was more of a spectacle than it was just a traditional medical procedure, right because they didn't know better to have a clean room right in air quotes and to not, I don't know, involve other fucking people. I I'm sorry if I'm getting my legs sawed off in the like 1805. I don't want people watching me and burning agony. Yeah, fuck that so obviously, for most patients, his speed was their salvation right.
8:22 I would imagine so Like the faster you amputate, the faster they're not going to be in pain or as much. I mean in theory, yeah, because if it takes an hour you're sawing through for an hour. That's a lot of fucking pain. Yeah 28 seconds Not so much. Obviously, sometimes speed wasn't successful. Of course, I mean that's. Yeah, there is one famous case while performing a leg amputation, liston allegedly castrated the patient by mistake. How do you accidentally cut the dick off? I mean, how big was that dick that you thought it was the leg?
9:04 I'm thinking maybe the balls. Is that what Castrate yeah? Oh is castration, only the balls. I think so yeah. I mean, I'm glad I don't know, because that means I'm not. But how do you? Yeah, oh, but it gets worse. Oh dear. Another story, Again another leg amputation. Another castration. Yes, he's moving with his. No, not castration, he's moving with. You know his trademark lightning speed. In the frenzy he slashed off his assistant's fingers. Were they holding the leg down?
9:45 They were doing something in the field Like all four, the vision field, like all four, or even the thumb. I don't know how many, I don't know how many. Oh my God. As he whipped the knife upward, he cut the fingers, he cut the coat of a spectator, because apparently that person had to be that close that's really fucking close and that spectator was in so much shock collapsed on the spot. Okay, oh, my word. The patient died of infection. I don't see how that could have happened the assistant with the fingers died of infection yeah the spectator who fainted, died of shock.
10:29 Wow, three deaths, one surgery, 300% mortality rate. So what's that? one in 10 going. No, I'm kidding. Oh my gosh. Hell, I mean it's funny and I don't know if it's this guy, but I have heard about something like that where I don't I guess I don't even remember if it was the fingers, but that was they were chopped off, basically. Yeah, like he had gangrene, yeah, or whatever it's like holy fuck, how do you like? I don't know, man, your fingers are there. I'm just going to keep going, I'm not stopping. We got to do this.
11:15 Yeah, seconds you got. You lose your fingers too. So what's unfortunate? What's unfortunate? Yeah, the story first appeared in the 1980s in author richard gordon's book great medical disasters so like basically almost 180 years later no contemporary reports confirmed that the story actually took place. Okay, sure, so it might be an exaggerated legend of course, and you know things like that, especially over time. Yes, and maybe something exactly inflated um. Details change like the telephone game yeah, yeah exactly, yeah, but I've seen this story everywhere. When I'm looking for origin of weird stories, I see the story everywhere. That's wild yeah, I couldn't imagine being like well, I'm just going to work today helping my doctor.
11:58 Yeah, holy shit, I lost my fingers. I'm dead but he was the first surgeon in europe to ever use ether anesthesia publicly in 1846. Said anesthesia, anesthesia, there, anesthesia, there you go. Ether anesthesia, did I say anesthesia. Did I really? I'm like Romanoff that was in 1846. Okay. He also developed quite a few instruments that helped shape the surgical practice for decades more. So, thanks to anesthesia, antiseptics, a sterile environment, survival rates are obviously much better than the one in 10 that Liston had.
12:41 Yeah right right. But he does have the grisliest record in surgical history. If it were true. Grisliest record, mm hmm. OK, grisliest record. Okay, he died in 1847 of a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Oh, which is the same year that ignace simmelweiss did his whole hand, started his hand washing fucking a. I mean, I know I brought him up already, but he just keeps popping up. That's just wild he was revolutionary, he literally was revolutionary. We have brought him up, especially since we did that story three, four times at least, including this obviously.
13:24 It is a previous origin of weird story about Ignaz Semmelweis, who revolutionized hand washing, just washing, just literally washing your hands being cleanly in surgery? Yes, and he was shit upon until people are like, no, this guy kind of was onto something. Ignace Semmelweis aired on March 13th and it is episode eight of the Origin of Weird. If anyone wants to go back and listen to that? And please do yeah. So yeah, short story but I think it's an excellent story. It's just, it's wild because obviously 200 years ago yeah, quite a different fucking time in terms of surgery, medication, medicine, everything involved in this, the fact that he cut his fucking and he castrated a guy.
14:16 Where do you think that author richard gordon got his information? I have no idea great medical disasters right in 1980, like that's such a weird thing to like make up if that was, you know, a made-up story or an exaggerated story like where did it come from? where did he like stumble across that? Basically, it's like this is a weird thing, I should write a story about this, or this guy looks like a person I can write about you can still buy it. Well, I'm sure yeah, for 13 dollars on amazon it seems like a lot I don't think I'm gonna buy that. I just did a story on it. I'm good. How do you?
14:57 How do you accidentally castrate a guy while you're sawing off his leg? I guess the I mean the leg would have to be real high. I say, were you sawing off? Sawing them off at the hip? Yeah that's what I would assume typically, and again I am not a doctor if we didn't do different titles for the origin of weird like about the person. I am not a doctor, would be the title, but typically I mean again, unless I guess the infection is super high, super high, yeah you wouldn't cut off that high. So it's like how do you accidentally I can understand accidentally cutting off your assist, your assistant's fingers, yeah, but castrating the person?
15:41 You're cutting his leg off it's like holy fuck hey uh, I got some good news and I got some bad news. The amputation went really well and and now you are not a man. I hope he didn't want any more kids. Yeah, because you cannot produce them, because no more balls. Yeah, I think we should end there, well, I suppose All right, buffoons. That's it for today's episode. Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you. Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore.
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