Surgery Without Anesthesia 

Surgery without anesthesia.

Life can be so much worse.

In his darkest moments, author AJ Jacob’s says those three words to put problems into perspective. Surgery without anesthesia. 

In the not-so-distant past, those unfortunate enough to be operated on, would be awake and aware for each agonizing incision, slice and suture. Here’s a description from a rare survivor of pre-anesthetic surgery:

George Wilson—a Professor of Chemistry at Edinburgh University—underwent a foot amputation in 1842. He remembered ‘the fingering of the sawed bone; the sponge pressed on the flap; the tying of the blood-vessels; the stitching of the skin; and the bloody dismembered limb lying on the floor’. 

Next time I’m having a bad day, three words will make it all better: surgery without anesthesia.

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And speaking of surgery without anesthesia, take a look at this horror story that I wrote last year: A Beating Heart.