Tag: surgery

Robert Liston – a genius surgeon

Wikipedia lists some of the most famous operations performed by Robert Liston.  Among them the only surgery in history with 300% mortality rate:

Liston’s most famous case

Amputated the leg in under 21⁄2 minutes (the patient died afterwards in the ward from hospital gangrene, they usually did in those pre-Listerian days). He amputated in addition the fingers of his young assistant (who died afterwards in the ward from hospital gangrene, they usually did in those pre-Listerian days). He also slashed through the coat tails of a distinguished surgical spectator, who was so terrified that the knife had pierced his vitals he dropped dead from fright.

That was the only operation in history with a 300 percent mortality.

Via oper.ru.

Maxim’s upcoming surgery

Yesterday I briefly mentioned that Maxim is about to have a surgery.  That was very inconsiderate of me.  I got a lot of people worried without providing any details whatsoever.   And for this I want to apologize. Thank you all who called and wrote.

Here are some more details just to lift that burden of the unknown.  Maxim will undergo removal of the adenoids and a related clean-up.   We are arranging blood tests and paperwork, and if everything will go OK, he’ll be operated tomorrow (Friday).  The procedure is widely practiced and should take only about 20 minutes, but will require general anaesthetic.   He should be back home before the end of the same day.

We tried to avoid the surgery for as long as we could, hoping that the problem can be cured other ways.  Unfortunately, in his case, it can’t.  And pushing it further is getting dangerous for his health.  He has been sick pretty much every other week for the last 6 month or so.  More often than not he needed antibiotics treatment.  His immune system needs a break, as well as his ears, which suffered to the edge of degrading his hearing.

So, that’s how things are for now.  I’ll keep you posted on how it will go.

Once again, thank you all for calling and writing.  Your support is very much appreciated.