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15. Far from taking their time whilst operating, surgeons loved to work fast and could even amputate an arm in under 30 seconds.
These days, a patient undergoing surgery would want their surgeons to take their time. Back in the 19th century, however, the opposite was true. Speed was of the essence. After all, patients went under the knife without modern-day anesthetics to dull the pain. They wanted it all over as quickly as possible. Moreover, a fast amputation was easier to patch up, significantly reducing the likelihood of a patient bleeding to death. It was even said that the amount of time spent on the operating table was directly collated to the likelihood of a patient making it out of the theater alive.
When it came to swift amputations, nobody could beat the Scottish surgeon, Robert Liston. Writing in a medical journal in 1837, he advised that “operations must be set about with determination and completed rapidly”. It was said he could amputate an arm within 28 seconds, while a leg took just over 2 minutes. According to the legendary nurse Florence Nightingale, he demanded that his assistants time him and even clasp bloodied knives between his teeth so he could have both hands free to yank off rotten limbs without losing a second.