Robert Liston

Robert Liston was a surgeon in the early 19th century. He was really tough and butch, which was pretty important before anesthetics were about. The deal was, you had to finish the operation really quickly so the patient didn't die simply from the pain of a prolonged procedure.

Liston's claim to fame was that he could amputate a leg at the hip and tie off the main blood vessels in 28 seconds.

All this was not that remarkable. However, he went down in history the day he slipped and accidentally amputated two of his assistants fingers and the patient's left testicle.

On a later occasion a country labourer came into his surgery with an aneurysm (which is a swelling of the artery) connected with one of the main arteries of the neck. Robert Liston examined the man and pronounced the lump to be an abscess and plunged his knife into it to drain.

The patient died within a few seconds as arterial blood gushed from the opened aneurysm.