Could You Survive Victorian Surgery?
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- čas přidán 8. 12. 2022
- 'Could You Survive Victorian Surgery?'
In this video, History Hit's Alice Loxton dives deep into London’s grisly past. She goes under the knife and takes a forensic look at the horrors of Victorian medicine. And where better to do so than the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret - one of London’s hidden gems.
The museum is housed in the only remaining part of what was once London’s most important centre of medicine, the old site of St Thomas’ Hospital. The tower of St Thomas’ Church, is one of the only surviving part of the original structure. And at the top of its very windy staircase is the original apothecary and herb garret for Old St Thomas’s Hospital.
In 1822, part of the herb garret was converted into a purpose-built operating theatre. Instead of operations taking place in the women’s ward in front of all the other patients, they would be performed here by leading experts, where medical students could watch and learn.
As Alice discovers, going under the knife for a Victorian amputation was a risky business. There were no anaesthetics and very little understanding of germs or infection. But despite the gruesome nature of these procedures, the female patients who made it onto the operating table here would've considered themselves lucky. Most were poor, and were prepared to put up with the distress of a live audience in order to receive treatment from the best surgeons in London. In fact, the trial and error of these operations led to major breakthroughs in surgical practice, paving the way for the huge advances in medicine in the 20th century.
So if you are someone who is fascinated by the gory, the gruesome and the downright bizarre … this is just what the doctor ordered. Stick around to the end to see if I survive the operating table, and don’t forget to subscribe and hit that notification bell.
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One of the best things about living in today's world: The existence and use of anesthesia.
I dont agree. antibiotics are far better.
@@kalleboll7410 yeah would you like to feel all the pain when your leg is being chopped off?
And the fact pretty much everything is sterile. And you probably won’t die if your amputated leg gets infected
I think I’d opt to die before I would agree to have my leg cut off while I was awake and aware and being restrained. The pain and trauma of that - I don’t like even thinking about loving beings enduring it
@tradde11 pain dont kill. you will blackout. bacueria and infection will kill you. pain it self will not kill.
antibotics is the most importen thing we have ever find. it have saved more life then anything. that and handwasing.
The texture on the bottles wasn't just to aid grip but to help prevent accidental poisoning. Grabbing a bottle in a dark or dimly lit room could lead to confusion. Hence if one grabs a textured bottle in the middle of the night without lighting a candle or lamp, the person knows immediately that they are holding a 'poisonous' substance.
Very smart!
Or just place a sticky note tab under the lip or directly under the neck of the bottle & punch each tab accordingly arranging from A-G & have a individual holes along the bottom but from underneath your tab. So by each punch you’d do from under the tab it will protrude upwards & you’ll be able to distinguish between from said,
| 𝔄 | | 𝔊 |
| . | |........|
(A. I - G IIX). If you still don’t get it we’ll maybe I’m just too baked & idk wtf I’m talking ab🤦🏻♂️🤣 Merry Christmas Eve everyone🤙🏽
(edit: Subtract that apostrophe from “We’ll”)
@@Martwa_Roza Victorians didn't have sticky notes lol
@@bazdog4464 simple just lick some paper & stick it🤦🏻♂️😂
@@Martwa_Roza yeah but a textured bottle compared to a non textured one is completely unmistakable like you can't not notice that
40 years ago we had a little old lady who was having her leg amputated using an epidural. She was conscious for the whole operation. She couldn't see what was happening due to a screen. As the epidural was being installed, there was some work happening outside, hammering and sawing. They stopped for the surgery and we told her it would be quiet. All the flesh had been cut back and the surgeon had just started to cut the bone. All of a sudden she shouted to stop, which he did. I asked her what was wrong. She said to go and tell the workmen to be quiet and stop sawing. It's the only time I saw operating theatre staff lose it. The surgeon dropped his saw and ran out side followed by others . You could hear them laughing and I was stuck trying not to. She stopped the surgeon twice more until someone brought a loud radio in. I've never laughed so much.
What? Why was she concious during these days?
@@joakimberg7897I imagine the patient possibly would have a bad reaction to general anaesthetic (the night night type) but could react better to a epidural so if the situation was pressing enough and patient consented they used that instead! This is just a theory I’m not a medical professional just guessing off my knowledge that some people don’t do well with GA.
@@Lia0302 Okay, thank you
@@Lia0302 you're more or less right yep!
@@joakimberg7897 it's a lot more common with older people to do an epidural instead of a full general anesthetic if possible. Certain medical conditions can mean a general anesthetic would seriously harm the patient, or even kill them. One example is if the patient had a severe heart condition (a 'weak' heart), in which case their heart couldn't take the stress of the general anesthetic and so the risk is too high.
With old age, often comes many health issues which is why I said it's more common with older people that an epidural is used instead. However, people of any age can have things like heart conditions/heart failure, or other conditions that'd make general anesthetic dangerous, it's just much rarer the younger they are. There are many conditions that could mean they choose an epidural, not just heart issues. An allergy to the medication used for anesthetic is one example, people with dementia or alzheimers can have their condition get a lot worse after anesthetic as their brain can't clear the medication from their system like a healthy person's could (this is a simplified explanation, truth is they don't fully know why such patients get so much worse but that's the basic concept).
For me, I have had an epidural to avoid anesthetic, and have had many other procedures done with just numbing etc where usually you'd be under general anesthetic or at least sedated a lot. My condition affects my muscles, including my diaphragm. This means I can't breath very well and need a type of ventilator at night and during parts of the day, to make up for the weak breathing muscles. For a general anesthetic, you're put on a breathing machine. For me, if I get put on that breathing machine, it's very hard to get back to my 'normal' of only needing breathing support for part of the day. If I had surgery with full anesthetic then there's a possibility that I wouldn't be able to get off the ventilator again so I avoid full anesthetic where possible
Sorry for such a long essay for the answer!
I have a strange fascination with the Victorian Era - It was such an horrible time to live for 99.9% of people of the Age, while at the same time starting to have some of nowadays' techs, it makes for a fascinating historical object of study. But I would never, ever take a Time Machine to get back at those times.
Not without a modern medicine chest!😊
"Look only display" - Alice rifles through ALL the herbs. 😂
Imagine 500 years in the future people going to our hospitals like they are a museum. Saying “only living 70-90 years? Looking at this stuff it’s no wonder why”
Very optimistic, I'd say in the future they will be living in mud huts and rubbing sticks together to start fires. Only a matter of time until someone presses the button.
@@EmergencyChannelyes lol
fun fact: we haven't extended the upper limits of our years lived but instead reduced the amount of people who die young, hence the statistic getting better while our soft age gap hasn't changed as drastically. It's still at around 100 years as a rough average for natural life spans
It's a very grim reminder as to how things were back in the day but it's also an important reminder that people learned how to perform operations for the larger community. Very well presented Alice. I would have had nightmares for ages had I been in your position. Many thanks for sharing. Oh and please don't break a leg, you are a brilliant presenter.
Due to Victoria's long life the Victorian Era was pretty long and your chance of survival at the beginning of the era would be significantly worse than at the end.
The patient POV was excellent haha
I agree
Thank God for anesthetic. Easily the most powerful amputation scene is from the movie Glory when the main character listens to a fellow wounded soldier getting his limb amputated without anesthetic. It's truly horrifying--the actor should've gotten an Oscar for that one scene.
I see Alice, I watch. She is always very entertaining and educational. Well done.
Real.
How is Alice Loxton so effortlessly cute 🤨
@@tdoran616 Nobody knows. But she is..
Well done Alice , you got over your amputation quite well , and recovered well enough to give us more of your talks
I saw Alice and a male friend in the wetherspoons at victoria station at the end of October. I was watching some of her mini docs on the coach journey back from Leicester. Great historian and a really engaging way of explaining history.
Awesome video. I voted for this topic in the poll last week and it didn't disappoint. This is the sort of thing that makes you thankful to be living in the 21st century!
Miss Alice Loxton is a gem who brings history to life.
Love your work 👍
Had the pleasure of attending my friend, Dr Lindsey Fitzharris' book launch earlier this year at the OOT! It's AMAZING. Such a gem so thanks for shining a light on it.
Shoutout to Dr Walker, too!
What a delightful way to teach history. Brilliant! Alice deep breaths are very amusing.
Are you kidding? I can barely survive this video! 😂
Why not just kill the poor sods!🤣
Nice editing there. ^^ Also, Alice's facial expressions on the table make it even better.
This was brilliant to watch! Lol loved Alice and Dr. Janega 😂 and the camera man. Honestly though, I am shocked at what surgery was like, obviously paved the way for todays medicine but the poor people that had to endure surgeries 😢
Camera guy reaching in to hold Alice down was too funny!
fun fact : alot of our modern medicine uses alot of the herbs shown here! while you arent familiar to the ingrediants, some of the ingrediants are of the scientific names! alot are also chemically based but those were either herbal historically and then branching off from herbs to chemicals! even alot of poisonous plants being used in small ammounts! bella donna was used for insomnia. hay fever. bronchial spasms in asthma. and many other things in VERY small doses! medicine has come far but we always have the very beginning to be thankful for!
So basically everyone who survived an operation in those days had to live with severe iatrogenic PTSD for the rest of their lives? Nah, just let me die, for real. 😔😔
Also, I was assuming that this was going to be an operation to set the bone and ultimately cast the leg. Then realized that wasn’t happening, and apparently in those days, if you broke a bone, you’d just lose the limb. Horrific. 😣
That's probably although being much more gruesome, probably the safer way for the patient to actually survive the injury.
If you have an open fracture in these times and especially if it happened as described on a street, there has to be tons of dirt, poop, horse fecals etc. in the wound.
So the choice was a guaranteed slow death due to infection or a roll of the dice with an amputation.
@@dag1704 Not to mention an open fracture is just inherently harder to set because part of the bone is already out of the body and its unlikely it'll line up well again to heal. There would just be too much meat in the way.
I’d much rather die than be tortured by having my limb cut off alive and cauterised with no anaesthesia, thank you very much
Thank you. Really enjoyed this but glad I wasn't a patient back in those days.
Absolutely fascinating topics!
Think about this for a moment: Many of the surgical tools we use today are refined versions that were invented by surgeons during that era.
Yep. Like the object used on her leg is later a thing we use for stopping heavy bleeding (like if you were in a deadly car accident, or if you were attacked by a wild animal, etc.)
I visited the Old Operating Theatre many years ago on my way to St. Thomas' Hospital (to have dental surgery). As I had about two hours before my appointment, I just had to see inside. It seems that I had arrived just as a talk was being delivered and the speaker was most informative (there were a few other curious souls in there as well). He went on to say that there was no ventilation, with the only illumination coming from a skylight and a primitive gas light and no running water or plumbing. The overcrowding would have been unbelievable, with the medical students packed in and standing like vertical sardines; the whole place must have been unpleasantly stuffy. If the surgeon and his assistants became too engrossed in their work, then the impudent students would shout out "Heads, heads!" as they could not see what was happening. I distinctly remember the speaker mentioning the part about the surgeon kicking the box of sand or sawdust under the table in order to catch the rivulets of blood. This was to prevent those involved from slipping and sliding. How humiliating it must have been for the patient/victim who must have been absolutely desperate, terrified and poverty-stricken. Hands and instruments were not washed or sterilised and the surgeon's coat (which he only wore while operating) would have been stiff with pus and blood - not exactly encouraging for the subject lying there. To this day, a surgical operating room is still referred to as an operating theatre as a result of the original design (but without the dozens of gawping students). I hope the above is of interest and thank you Alice for reviving this historical memory for me.
The sawdust! My dads an old school butcher! He used saw dust on the floors and on his block to clean it! It really works so well!
Fantastic video. Don't ever stop!
I am never going to complain about modern medicine ever again...
But I would be so curious about how we judge todays medicine in 300 years.
"They still used Electro Shock Therapy?" (Still happens, but under anaesthetic). Also, "Why the use of so many needles?"(in the case of IV).
@@callummclachlan4771 they pumped people full of radioactive stuff to cure cancer and bombarded them with radiation to look inside them, completely bonkers.
Just gotta love the beautiful Alice Loxton ! Don’t care what she says, she’s GREAT! Seriously, another brilliantly informative film. So grateful we can get them free of charge.
Alice -- I don't know who was more frightened seeing you on the block ready for amputation. It made my blood run cold as your surgeon sawed with long strokes and you just had to take the pain. Those long knives almost made me faint. They were like bayonets.
You are a fun person. With your surgeon's macabre sense of humour, you made a fantastic horror comedy. It was warmly appreciated. Thank you most kindly!
I was cringing the whole time because I had double jaw surgery a few years ago (basically sawing both jaws and realigning them), and I could (and would) NEVER have agreed to such a thing over a century ago! Sawing your leg is one thing, but your FACE without anesthesia is quite another... Those POOR people 😢
Excellent informative video which I enjoyed watching
Alice is so awesome! Great video!!!!
Alice is just so lovely. Never I had learned about the beginnings of surgery and fallen in love at the same time. Remarcable.
The Victorians definitely didn't begin surgery; it's ancient.
I visited this museum quite a few years ago. There was a ward book on display, detailing patients illness and treatment. The majority of the 'medication' administered was alcohol. There was also a display of surgical instruments, including gynaecological instruments. Any lady intending to go to the museum, should avoid this display.
I used to work in a museum that had a case of Roman medical instruments. The basic design of the speculum is at least 2000 years old. It was fun watching women pursue the display and realize what they were looking at!
@@makelikeatree1696 I can only hope they used some kind of lubricant. Even though I'm a man, it still made my eyes water.
@Gra ey. Women are usually more stoic and resilient than you appear to give them credit for🙂
Any weekend starting with a new video with Alice is going to be a great one 😊
It makes me wonder what kind of person it would take to watch this procedure for the first time as a med apprentice and not think "Is it too late to study law?".
That was brilliant , very disturbing listening to the surgery. How horrible that must have been
I'd love to see Alice and Dr Janega collab. Such great educationists.
It’s gonna take quite a few derpy animal vids to drown that operation out of my memory.
Makes you wonder how we've managed to survive as long as we have as a species 😅
Some would always survive even if survivor chances there low and our biggest strengh is that we can reproduce fast xD
If you're interested in the world of Victorian Medicine and Surgery then you must read a book called "The Butchering Art - How Joseph Lister Changed the World of Victorian Surgery"! It's brilliant, a little bit gory, especially in the first half of the book, but it's so well written and informative. You won't be able to put it down. The subject is so fascinating and the weird thing is that after anaesthesia was discovered - by the Americans BTW, so give yourselves a pat on the back for that one, I mean it - but after that, infection from surgery actually increased because, with anaesthesia, surgeons could cut further into the body without causing any pain. And that lead to more infections because doctors and surgeons didn't wash their hands before performing an operation! And they didn't clean their scalpels or knives either!!! 😮 Love from Amanda in Australia xox ❤️
They don't wash their hands now in the 21 st century.😡🙄
That was interesting. Hard to get through, but, interesting. Listening to this if you have had broken bones or multiple surgeries is rough lol.
As ever brilliant mini doc
That was amazing
!
In 1887 my great grandfather - then 18 - was instructed to re-connect a belt driving a bookbinding machine at Wyman's printing works in Great Queen Street off Holborn. His printer's apron caught in the mechanism, and he was deprived of a leg and an arm. He was conveyed to the hospital in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was lucky enough to be operated on by Sir Joseph Lister. Awarded the princely sum of £200 compensation, his employer unsuccessfully challenged the enormity of the sum. Great grandfather live on until he was 66, having sired two daughters and five sons.
16.57 Hey! I know this!
I'm a dentist, and we still use this instrument today; it's called a bone ronguer, used to smooth sharp bone and remove excess bones protruding from extraction sites.
Omg. Alice you’re a good sport and a great patient.
I’m currently recovering from a surgery. This makes me feel good and forget all the pain because man oh man I’m so lucky to be alive in this century instead of that one 😂
What a great presenter…..informative and very funny
Went on a school trip to this place, scared me for life.
The fake bone age that popped up hilarious lmao i love this video though in all seriousness the humor and the informative info .
Yay for Dr. John Snow who was a pioneer in anesthetics. Queen Victoria profited from the use of chloroform twice under his care (for two births). He was also an epidemiologist. I can't imagine the pain of being sawed and an injury being so manhandled and in front of everyone, too. I think I would've lost consciousness!
I read that the faster the surgeon, the more skilled. There were cases of assistants holding the limb losing the tips of their fingers. 😮
A great watch, imagine this carried out ... on board HMS Victory at Trafalgar in 1805, some 30 years even earlier. " Horrific " !
Been to this museum before,it was rather fasinating
I love how Dr. Walker grows into her element in this ❤ she’s all into it by the time they get to the actual theatre, definitely loves what she does
MAN THIS GIRL IS THE GREATEST HOST
Absolutely horrific I'm shocked 🤢😱
Goes in for a stomach ache, ends up having a leg amputated.
Alice has just inspired me to use the word "Quackery" more regularly on an everyday basis.
Interesting video
So much in this video is erroneous.
For one thing, the theory of the four humors was not in currency in the Victorian era. .
Also,
It’s a common misconception that there were no anesthetics used in premodern surgery. There were several options available to the medieval or early modern surgeon.
Laudanum is probably the best known. There were also preparations made from opium and hemlock.
Interestingly, in Boccaccio’s Decameron (1340’s) there’s a tale where the plot involves someone accidentally ingesting an anesthetic taken from a surgeon’s medical chest and his friends mistake him for dead.
But it's true tht anaesthetic is not popular until 1847 onwards.. Until John Snow really tested the anaesthesia tht we use today
Early anaesthesia uses chloroform to cover a person face to make them sleep, unless u r lucky tht the doctor doesn't kill u from overdose.. 😅😅😅😅😅
That was brilliant. I thought everyone was intelligent and humorous.
That Apothecary doctor "erm erm erm erm om om erm erm" so infuriating to listen to.
Remember the good old days you could actually see a Dr!!
while watching the whole operating procedure being explained, i kept having a weird feeling in my leg
People take it for granted for all the comforts in today's world.
I really hope Alice gets a cameo in a Jay Foreman video soon
Very informative, and not a little bit terrifying.
Yeah right.
I feel that the way Alice convalescence her love for history. Is magic for kids. If you're willing for abit more humour like sir norman wisdom the children will love it. Bbbc. Channel 4 show.
Bone saw: literally just a hand saw 🤣 dang that's savage.
Could I survive a Victorian Hospital? Heck, It's difficult enough to survive a Charles III era Hospital with all its sharp barbes and dehumanising imperatives.
Alice's the best!
I am so happy I was born in the early 2000s
Cracking video! Literally ;)
Once they got into the OT my whole body physiologically reacted as if this turned into a horror movie! I know humanity has its problems today but they were so much worse back then plus poor medical practices.
"Time me, gentlemen..."
Went there as a nipper. Glad to see it's still open
I thought the ribbing on the poison bottles was so that a pharmacist couldn't grab a poison off the shelf (they weren't always behind glass) by mistake...
I love the doctor. She is a good sport and I love her.
Why did she keep saying like ?. 15 times. 🙄
How was amputation better and easier option than some sort of pushing the bone inside, tying it straight to some splints, stitching and dressing the wound..?
The supposed "injury" was caused by a horse cart, so an open wound like that, in those days, would've been packed with dirt and god knows what else. Amputating it "clean" off probably had better prospects than risking infection.
If you want to see a fictional movie horror that shows stuff like this happening then watch ''The Corridors Of Blood'' In 1840s London, Dr. Thomas Bolton (Boris Karloff) dares to dream the unthinkable: to operate on patients without causing pain. Unfortunately, the road to general anaesthesia is blocked by a ruthless killer (Christopher Lee), as well as Bolton’s devastating addiction to his own chemical experiments.
I was worried about you on the operating table. Will have a look next time I'm in London
Is it just me or did Alice start to look a bit panicked and ill on the table while the surgery was being described? lol
Yeee we won the happy December video contest!
Doctor to patient: 'I have good news and bad news'
Patient: 'What's the bad news?'
Doctor: 'We cut off the wrong leg'
Patient: 'Aaargh, what's the good news?'
Doctor: 'Your other leg is getting better!'
Patient: I can't feel my legs!
Doctor: That's because we've amputated your arms!
10:50 my grandmother had bone sticking out like that because she fell. she was 80.
When she got to the bone nippers was when I was for sure I would rather die than go to the surgery theater.
I would run away from that operating theater. Now I know where the term operating theater comes from. In the United States, it is called an operating room.
Do I want to learn about surgery? No. Will I watch anything Alice does? Yes.
Very interesting video and they said about amputations being done quickly well the Scottish surgeon Robert Liston could Amputate a limb in no more than 28 seconds before the patient died of shock and every time Liston started a operation he would say to the crowd of students time me gentlemen time me and when Liston finished a amputation he would hold the severed stump up in the air and the crowd of students and the people would whistle and cheer for him but Robert Liston was the best surgeon of all time and to myself he is my idol and always will be because he's a great man and the best ever surgeon back during the victorian era.
Didnt the medieval surgeons pour hot wax into open wounds to stop the bleeding?,plus it stopped infections with the balms they used with honey.
Ah, the good old days.
as much as I wanted to finish watching this video, I have to turn it off to make sure that I don't pass out.
HAHA! I've recently been learning about the Japanese isolation period (1639-1853), and seeing this video about how western medicine was back then, and all I can think is ya know maybe they had a point about cutting themselves off from this European horror show.
this is horrific
Meadowsweet was used to make aspirin, and leeches are still used in medicine today!