The Miraculous Medieval Surgery That Saved King Henry V’s Life
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
- In 1403, a rebellion broke out in England that would culminate in one of the bloodiest battles to ever take place on English soil. On 21st July 1403, King Henry IV with his son, the future Henry V, went head to head with a Northern traitor - Henry Hotspur. The Battle of Shrewsbury would pit rebel against royalist. Englishman against Englishman. At stake was the crown of England.
At the battle, the future King Henry V took an arrow just below the eye. The arrow penetrated on the left side below the eye and beside the nose of the young prince. When surgeons tried to remove the arrow, the shaft broke, leaving the bodkin point embedded in his skull some five to six inches deep, narrowly missing the brain stem and surrounding arteries
In this extract from the full-length documentary, Professor Michael Livingston meets with expert James Wright, who has extensively researched what happened to Hal after the battle, to see a demonstration on how royal surgeon John Bradmore attempted to save the heir to the throne's life.
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ER doctor here. The wound management principles used here are all spot on, which is amazing given that the physicians and surgeons of the time did not even know how healing or infections worked. I can only imagine the social pressure involved in attempting something like this. To anyone watching, it would look like you were torturing the prince and worsening the wound every day. If he had died, people would be looking at you as the potential cause of the death. Brilliant medical work.
With reapect to your modern day knowledge, it sounds like he did understand infection and healing. Let's not forget how profound was their understanding, including about herbal properties, pre modern drug-based medicine!!
Quite amazing.
Wonderful to have the surgeons description.
I think they didn't know WHY the stuff they did worked but they knew HOW it worked. Granted, not on a deeper level and they achieved their knowledge through trial and error, but I'm convinced the people who came before us knew a great deal more than we give them credit for. Transfer of knowledge (teaching) was of course just as crucial as experience but you don't have to know about bacteria to know how to prevent infection.
@@Drumandbassplanet
They knew nothing of the mechanisms of healing, little about how the "mechanics" of the body worked, nothing of the germ theory of infection. What they had was a rough idea of how the body worked and empirical evidence of what worked. "Willow bark reduces pain" was known because people had tried eating all the tree barks and remembered the one that reduced pain with no idea of salicylic acid, no idea of dosing and little knowledge of side effects.
Scientific drug manufacture allows consistent strength of the effective compound, it allows consistent dosing, and ensures purity.
And herbs aren't necessarily free -- only if you can pick and prepare them yourself and don't count your time as a cost. Try getting willow bark in an arid country or opium somewhere poppies don't grow.
@@XelaMaThey knew the body healed from wounds and that infectiosn happened. They didn't understand the mechanisms behind either. Germ Theory wasn't proposed until the 1800s and doctors mocked the man who proposed it.
When I was 16 years old I got a javelin in the face. It penetrated in the exact same spot as shown on the dummy's head. Since the javelin came from above it went through my skull and the point entered my mouth, through two pieces of solid bone. Any other spot in my face or head and I would probably have died. This was of course the 1980's and the wound was treated properly, my face put back in place since part of it had shifted, and I fully recovered leaving no more than a small scar under the eye.
As to pain: I never felt any. Maybe from shock, I don't know.
Seeing him stick the arrow in the dummy's head in the place where my scar is was unsettling, even after 40 years.
That sounds terrible, I guess something went horribly wrong during PE?
Healing that wound must also have taken months... but I am glad to hear that you pulled through.
@@h.a.9880 I did athletics, was a javelin thrower myself. It took weeks. I was young, that helps a lot.
I have a friend who does reconstructive plastic surgery, it really is remarkable what can be done these days for people who have had facial tumors or terrible injuries like yours. What could be done when you were injured, it's even more sophisticated now. 40 years on, I'm glad you're still around to tell the tale!👍
Wow, you are one of the few here that can appreciate the pain. Remarkable. @@mbrackeva
Its amazing what the human body can endure. When a trauma happens the brain goes into survival mode.
Never underestimate the intelligence or ingenuity of those that came before us - after all, we stand upon their shoulders.
It's such a misleading inclination to associate intelligence with degree of advancement, yet we are so prone to it for some reason.
@@drworm5007can you example what you mean?
@@rationallyrubyone of the most common examples is that the ancient Egyptians were incapable of building the pyramids. That ancient peoples were just not sufficiently advanced
@drworm5007 every humans think they are smarter than the ones that came before us while wiser than the ones who came after.
@@rationallyrubyneeding aliens as an answer for the invention of mechanical computer 2,000 years ago.
If you're ever feeling down, just remember you belong to the 1% of all humanity who's had access to anesthesia.
Especially at the dentist's...
Well, very effective anaesthesia. They had alcohol , opium and probably a few other things that helped to deaden the pain somewhat. As the video says, there were problems with these, especially alcohol and its blood- thinning side effect. But of course, nothing that completely knocked the patient out so by God, you needed to be tough in those days.
There is an account of, if I remember right, aound the 1800s of a woman getting surgery for breast cancer with zero anaesthetic. It's a tough read. But it was successful and she lived for no less than 27 years after the operation.
@@paulohagan3309 Knocked out, put under, anesthetized and sedated... Different endeavors entirely. A little medical knowledge wouldn't hurt you.
@@chickenlover657 The common denominator of all are the attempt to lessen pain. I don't need specialized medical knowledge to put forward the point.
@@paulohagan3309 Who said it wasn't such an attempt? The point is that before modern anesthesia all those attempts were semi-futile. For example, even today, and even with the "good drugs", more than half of sedated patients in the intensive care unit actively recall pain. Meanwhile, general anesthesia does more than put you to sleep. You don't feel pain at all when you're under general anesthesia. Not even going to mention alcohol, which is actually utterly useless in preventing pain.
The fact that the prince kept fighting for half an hour shows how powerful adrenaline is.
He discussed this actually and explained that it is an oversimplification
Well, after all, it is Henry V England’s greatest warrior king the man who really had miracles if he hadn’t died of dysentery during a French siege, he would’ve been king of France and changed history
Adrenaline, rage, and determination. Plus being so young helped. The young can bounce back much quicker than the old. He was a warrior fighting for his country. With shock and a adrenaline adding fuel to his fire, he was almost unstoppable
Or how powerful exaggeration is!
@@sidp5381 Non merci.
What really blows me away with this legend of a surgeon is that not only does he figure out how to do all this, but rather than keep it a secret and building up some kind of mystery around himself like a druid or medicine man, he documents and publishes.
This man didn't want to save just the prince, he wanted to save everyone.
He was a "barber surgeon" a low class guy who worked with his hands, not one of the elite physicians who decided what worked based on their intellect, not their observations, and wrote things for the surgeons to follow.
@@lazygardensYeah. Science has really changed since then. This man was ahead of his time.
@@foo219 One thing the low class surgeons did was publish in their usual language, not Latin like scholars and philosophers.
Ambroise Pare was ridiculed because he didn't know much Latin, and he published in French ... and that's why he was so influential, because the barber surgeons could read his work.
@@lazygardensLike I said, ahead of his time.
You’re thinking like a capitalist thinks who hoards everything for themselves. Very evil thinking people
2.30 ‘he was phenomenally lucky’. Eric Blair ( George Orwell) was told much the same when shot through the throat during the Spanish Civil War and he reportedly replied ‘no I’m not, I got shot through my throat’.
If he got shot through his throat how could you say that?!?!? 😮
This made me laugh so hard 😂
No one I met at this time - doctors, nurses, practicantes, or fellow-patients - failed to assure me that a man who is hit through the neck and survives it is the luckiest creature alive. I could not help thinking that it would be even luckier not to be hit at all.
- Orwell, Homage to Catalonia.
In 2015,The mayor of Cologne, Henriette Reker, was stabbed through the neck by a right wing extremist with a bowie knife and she survived. Some folks are incredebly lucky@@GalootWrangler
@@samholdsworth420 The arrow could've been below or above the larynx.
I survived esophageal cancer and had a feeding tube for almost a year. I told the doctor that I felt I could eat enough to get rid of the feeding tube and he said to take it out whenever I was ready. He also said it’s easy to remove, but will require surgery to put it back in so be sure. I asked “what about the hole” and I’ll never forget he told me my body wanted that foreign object out of my body and that the hole would immediately close. I’ll never forget sitting in warm tub of bath water and slowly removing the feeding tube and I was shocked at how long it was. Sure enough the hole instantly closed and 24 years later it looks like a bullet wound. The human body is amazing and I can’t even imagine what this surgery was like and all other surgeries before effective anesthesia.
I'm glad to hear you're doing better now!
You can also see the same effect on miniature if you watch a professional piercer work (the kind that uses a needle, not a piercing gun). They always push the needle through until the back end is getting close to the skin, and then they thread the jewelry onto the needle before pulling it the rest of the way through. If they don't get the jewelry into the back of the needle before it goes into the flesh, the hole closes up, which is called losing the transfer. It's also why they tell you not to change your piercings until they heal. I take longer to heal than most, so I had my earring holes close up twice as a teenager before I just gave up on bothering to get them pierced again (I did wait the recommended time, but I heal slow)
My mother also survived that and had j tube in her intestine for enteral feeding. Remarkable you survived that has 5% survival rate so glad you are in remission and were able to eat normally again. It's a terrible cancer.
The way it’s written… you removed the tube yourself? I have to be misunderstanding.
@@ChrisW228 That’s what happened you read it correctly and it was done as I said with my doctor’s direction. Believe me I was surprised that that’s what he told me.
Glad you're doing better! :D
There's also the story of a toolsmith who got brought a rough sketch of a tool nobody had ever build before and was told he needs to make it right now or the prince might die.
It doesn't look terribly complicated, but it might have taken several prototypes to get it right, and that probably would have taken some time as well.
Bradmore is thought to have been a metalworker as well as surgeon, so he might have made it himself, or at least would have been able to give very clear directions.
that was my first thought.....yes, the doctor conceived the tool but the tool maker had to actually make it.....
@@rickcimino5483 Physicians at the time were little more than glorified astrologers. They subscribed to the theory of "the Four Humours" and how "the stars' and planets' alignments" affected them. Barbers were the ones who had access to precision steel implements, so many barbers were also surgeons. Their status was generally little more than that of a butcher. Bradmore might have been a metalworker and was recorded elsewhere as a "gemster" -- he might have fashioned jewelry. He also dabbled in counterfeiting ( a capital crime), so the pardon he was given for saving the prince's life literally saved his own life as well.
It was the wrong future.
@@LauraBurchardconsidering all the metal tools a surgeon of that time needed, they wood have to be knowledgeable about or a practicing metalworker. On the video they show the variety ot types plus there were probably different sizes of each tool needed.
Many of the things they used were accidentally aseptic. Surgical drains for deep wounds were frequently made of wing bones of large birds, BOILED in vinegar to remove calcium and make them flexible. Sutures were "catgut" (really the silk glands from silkworms, stretched into a filament) that had to be BOILED to make them flexible for use. Wound washes were herbs simmered in cheap wine (plenty of antimicrobial polyphenols in it), and linens were preferable dried in the sun (UV light). Rosewater and turpentine ... polyphenols! It was true "oil of turpentine", not the stuff sold today as paint thinner.
Act of accident or act of God. But truly amazing either way!
And turpentine, the real stuff, is excellent for many things today
Ppl r scared to death of it
But it’s great for parasites
(which Americans don’t have, yes I know 🙄)
Herbs don’t need simmering to be very effectual
U can chew jewelweed and plaster it on poison ivy, as a poultice while out in the wild.
U can make other poultices at home too. No simmering nor wine needed. Very very effective.
I wouldn’t say accidental - the knowledge of herbalism, for example, comes from millennia of trial and error and documentation. They may not have had modern science, but they could hypothesise, observe, test and document results. Traditional Chinese Medicine shows a remarkable attention to detail, cause and effect, and overlaps modern western medicine in a remarkable way.
I'm a trauma provider. A 16yo is a phenomenon. They sustain and survive what older people cannot.
This surgeon was sweating.
i provide trauma and trauma accessories
@@Drumandbassplanet Suspect 'trauma' in the profession is short for 'trauma treatment'.
@@Drumandbassplanet Not being funny either but respectfully are you a native English speaker?
@@DrumandbassplanetI'm asking because I'm an English language teacher and I know from experience that sometimes shortened forms in English can cause confusion for learners of English as a second language.
@@DrumandbassplanetI came to say the same...jokingly of course. I am a native English speaker, albeit of Black Country dialect 😂
the way they allowed the wound to heal is called healing by secondary intention and was/is still used today for certain types of wounds. This was a great story. thank you.
And thank goodness the wound gets pretty numb from the packing material. It's pretty intense. Especially taking care of the wound yourself.
@@annettefournier9655Don’t I know. I had to pack my c-section incision wet to dry four times a day all with a newborn and working 12 hr nights in an ICU. This was 30 yrs ago before we had paid maternity leave and I had to return to work after 5 weeks.
I suffered sepsis and had my left foot and right hand amputated completely as well as the forefoot on the right and all the fingers on my left hand and half the thumb. The would on the stump on the left took over a month to heal from the bottom up with daily wound care. Seeing this medieval surgeon’s work is absolutely amazing.
This type of wound healing is what they did with my mom when she lost her leg.
Tried to google it but it seems they are saying they didn’t want to let the skin heal before the lower portions of the wound healed, why is that? I would have thought letting the skin heal would provide a barrier to help reduce the chance of bacterial infection
This boy king was an absolute unit. Fighting for half an hour with an arrow in his face and surviving that surgery in that time damn!
One thing that is not mentioned is that the course of the arrow must have been through the maxillary sinus which is air filled and basically a hollow cavity. As an ENT surgeon we can enter this area just above the teeth. The cavity only has nerve cells on the periphery so the pain and bleeding is not as bad as if it were solid flesh. However, at the back of the sinus is a critical area containing blood vessels and nerves that can be fatal if cut. He was indeed lucky none of these critical structures was damaged. As far as infection the sinus has a normal drainage channel into the nose which certainly helped with the healing process. The method of extraction of the arrow point was extremely clever and he was fortunate to know the approximate size of the cavity in the tip.
Thank you for adding this info!
As a former orthopædic nurse I found this to be very interesting. Considering that there was little known about surgery on the head at that time, let alone wound aftercare and treatment, this is an amazing example of a very intelligent doctor, who was probably learning as he went along, drawing on what experience he had with battlefield injuries and doing something quite unique,, even designing and making a special instrument to remove the arrowhead. Wow!
What's incredible is that he didn't get an infection at some point..
I’m in awe. How absolutely remarkable. We often talk about the “horrors” of medicine from the past but it is truly incredible how much they got right without knowing why it was right.
How can people not find history fascinating
@barnzYT it all has do do with the teacher, the correct one can do a good job at keeping it interesting. Same as two comedians repeating the same joke, one will always get more people to laugh than the other.
@@sudeshramdhanie6216 true
It blows my mind that people just don't care about history. It's so important and fascinating.
@@coreyrutherford7231 I completely agree. I blame schools a lot nowadays for the way they teach it (in the uk anyway) I’m only 24 so only 8 years out of school however I remember in history all you got shoved down your throat was history politics.
When my parents were in school every year group took trips over to Belgium and France to see war graves etc to give them a first hand look at the scale of war and how important history was.
Now all you get is taught how our country are evil and we should bend the knee to everyone rather than some of the incredible things we have achieved in history and how we have moved on from them
@@barnzYT Might be your own ideas kept you from appreciating what you were taught when it wasn't what you wanted to hear.
Dr. John Bradmore, what a genius!
He probably wouldn't have accepted that compliment until a bit of time after the success
@@wirelessone2986 Well, it's ok now, wouldn't you say?
I can’t imagine the pain Henry went through, or how much this wound disfigured his cheek bone area. No wonder his portraits are only painted from the side profile rather than front facing as portraits usually are painted.
Yeah, but women really love a guy with a battle scar. Think of all the ladies throwing themselves at him afterwards! 😅
No mention of major cheek bone damage by the surgeon, I think it would have healed with just a scar. Bullet entry holes are often just pink scars when healed.
then you got people like Erin Moriarty who disfigure themselves in name of trying to improve their beauty!
@@dfjtobinKing Henry the 8th suffered from a jousting wound in the leg that never completely healed, suppurating pus 2 decade later. If he had not had the medical care he received he would have died. Samuel Pepys 120 years later had his bladder operated on to remove stones, the operation must have been excruciating but he survived for another 3 decades until the inner wound reopened and he died of sepsis. The main issue was before non dissolving stitches surgeons only stitched on the outer skin.
@@bibphil5078 This video discusses exactly that, the surgeon worked on the wound over time to allow it to heal from the inside up. Watch the video, it is interesting.
“It’s just a flesh wound”. Seriously, people were a lot tougher in the past than today. To think that this surgery was performed over six hundred years ago is amazing.
Actually, I’m a Brit by birth and long time US resident. I know the MP quote.@@Drumandbassplanet
Well, British humor and the creation of relevant cultural trends haven't been seen for 3-4 decades now. Since then(and before), it's been all American.
Although, I enjoyed Mr Bean, Keeping up Appearances, Are you being served?, Ab Fab, Monty etc as a child in the 80s and 90s.
Shakespeare was a poet, not a historian. Likewise he was not there for the actual event as it was a couple centuries before. The point of downplaying the wound was to further elevate the toughness of Henry V.
They were tougher but died easier and younger.
People today have endured terrible agonies, too. It's just that most of us don't need to suffer such horrible pain anymore. You think women with awful pregnancy experiences don't know real pain? Certain types of cancer or organ failures? It's easy to say we are wimps when you yourself have never had to go through it.
My father was hit in the face with an arrow while serving for his country during World War II. I was not born yet, but I do remember the scar on his cheek and used to question it from time to time as a child. He told me the story of how he was met up with a soldier face-to-face. The enemy was caring, a poison type arrow and it was a donor die situation. I guess my father shot him at the same time as he was stabbed by the poison arrow leaving a large scar on his face. My father never believed in killing, and even though he had no choice, he was also drafted at a very young age, I’m glad that he ended the enemy’s life for the purpose of saving his own. It was important that he continued on, and saved countless women, children from the Nazis.
Both patient and surgeon must have been running on pure adrenaline.
History Hit is consistently one of my teaching go-to resources because of the specificity of the mini-documentaries like this. I am a science educator in the United States and I absolutely love building a multi subject curriculum based on true events that demonstrate how science has shaped the history of our world. Whether it’s the physics of the arrow striking the Prince or the chemistry behind the plants used to anesthetize him for the arrow removal, this story is an educational gem! Thank you to the brilliant team at History Hit!
It's like going to college or University every episode!
Hi Brooklyn N Chick. “Hello”. Just read your comment, and thought of this re your educating process. In 1990’s British production Connections with James Burke was a great series. I thought then, and still think, it would so suitable for young (any age)minds in school to get them interested in different histories, societies, inventiveness of humans, etc. I’ve started rewatching them right here on YT. I highly recommend you watch one and maybe it could be another Smart show to make your students smarter, too. “Cheers” from Bev. in Canada
@@bevgordon7619 Thank you very much, I will look into this. I appreciate your investment in getting high quality education to students; I am sure they’ll love it! Have a joy-full week!
What a fantastic teaching method. 👏👏👏
Yes it is very good , one of the very best thing to go out on British TV@@bevgordon7619
My ancestral grandfather was the armor bearer to King Henry IV and fought at Shrewsbury. He was nearly seven feet tall and loved to fight. After his death, he was interred in York Minster. History is awesome.
@@Drumandbassplanet 3 generations in 620 years is a bit odd , new account and first comment is a bit Botish.
@@Losantivillethe op didn't mention generations he said ancestral grandfather which could be any amount of generations but yeah probably is cappin' but ya never know...
Bull shit
Ancestral grandfather means your father's father,look it up. So yes the math is off by about 500 years!!
@@jacquescousteau6810 erm, maybe you should look it up? Here I looked it up, Google says "Ancestral Grandfather - An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder, or a forebear, is a parent or (recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). Ancestor is "any person from whom one is descended. In law, the person from whom an estate has been inherited"
Shakespeare has the Dauphin refer to Henry as “ a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth”. In reality, I suspect the French knew of Henry’s wound, his recovery, and his subsequent military record and knew they were facing an experienced foe with an unusual sense of determination.
"And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them."
Yeah, I don’t usually take Shakespeare as literal. Dude was making entertainment for illiterate peasants.
Shakespeare’s histories aren’t “history”….they are entertainment. Didn’t you learn that in school??
Imagine leaving your medieval surgeons office with instructions like "just avoid any miasma and call me if you start seeing goblins."
They were much more sophisticated than that. Don't believe everything you see on the internet.
@@chickenlover657well it’s hit and miss, you hear about things like this and then go and read about what they did before George Washington died
@@asneakychicken322 You can also read about microbes being a thing in 36 BC. Lots depends on how much you're willing to read and investigate.
@@chickenlover657 nah they didn't have microscopes in BC era. They could have GUESSED there's microorganisms but there was no proof until recently.
@@KasumiRINA Of course they guessed. That was a feat in itself.
My word, what an injury. I am surprised he survived at all. Infections were no joke in the past. What an amazing man he was. Henry Hotspur was no snowflake either.
Mediaeval surgeons often washed their instruments and the skin they are about to cut with wine. They had no idea why it worked but they could see it helped. All of the techniques being discussed in this video were taught at the University of Paris and at Bologna’s. There is some evidence that some European physicians actually went to Ibn Sina’s hospital in the Middle East to learn his techniques.
It is very sad that by the 19th century those practices were discontinued as being something done by ignorant individuals. Scientists like Louise Pasteur & Dr. Lister had to reintroduce sanitary hygiene to doctors, obstetricians & surgeons to lower the death rates in surgeries & births. Yes, Prince Hal was operated on in his bed chamber. But you can bet everything used during the surgery & after was very clean. "The Dark Ages" weren't really dark. There is a book about it & this age jump started The Renaissance. Al Andaluz, the Moorish empire in Spain & Portugal, provided the foundation with its libraries. The translators, & later the printing press, spread the knowledge. Europe owes alot to international trade & the universal thirst for knowledge.
The immune system of species 8472.😯
Kevin Hicks from the History Squad covered this in detail many times ♥️
Great shout out, love watching Mr Hicks.
@@cleverusername9369 He is an Awesome Historian and very passionate.
Might have been where they got the idea for this story
Seen him do it live once or twice at Sherwood in the shade of the Major Oak.
I went to University of Warwick and used to go past Kenilworth Castle everyday on the commute. Kenilworth was apparently the dogging capital of the Midlands at the time...
Wow, the surgeon was good. And, I'm just glad I'm born in present day...with anesthesia
At 8:13 the host describes a 'really effective anesthetic'.
As long as you’re not in Gaza 😮
@@stevetaylor8298
Yes. One that was just as likely to kill you, he said!
@@myriamickx7969 Overdose is what killed you with that form (people still die today from anesthesia). I remember reading about a similar anesthetic that surgeons used in Chaucer's time in a book Chaucer's World. The physician said that care had to be taken or the patient never woke up. He also said that it is so effective that the patient is in so deep a sleep that he feels no cutting done by the surgeon.
Kind of ironic that medicine was better during the Middle Ages than the "Enlightenment". They stopped using the effective herbs because that was "superstition". Only now is medicine looking into herbal medicine. Less recently: Aspirin=willow bark. Digitalis=foxglove plant, and so on.
@@Neddoestor any conflict zone really or being a great distance from established modern medicine. Our access to modern medicine in 1st world countries is a luxury many do not have.
Absolutely Amazing. The fact that this Doctor knew about infection and how to treat it, really impresses me. His surgical skills and talent as a Doctor must have been in big demand back then.
If you look a Henry's tomb effigy at 12:54 you can see a mark on the left side exactly where the arrow would have been. So I think left side as Bradmore said.
The quality of the image at that point in the video is okay, but not exactly high-resolution. It’s hard to tell if the metalwork is supposed to show a scar to the left - Henry’s left - of his nose, or if that’s just an anomalous effect of the reflection of the lights at that angle.
@@ColumbiaB No it is not hard to tell, that is a mark on the metalwork, not a trick of light, whether is was done by design or by accident is the real question, I just found it interesting that it is in the place where the arrow hit.
@@dfjtobin l have to agree, and if the effigy wasn't embellished or altered, he also looks far more handsome than he does in his portrait.
ETA, l was wondering why there was a discrepancy between the two, and discovered that portraits were often painted showing the subject's left side, which was supposed to look more expressive or emotive, so the person who painted him may have been using artistic licence and eliminated the wound from his painting. I thought that was interesting.
Yes. We almost always describe things from our left right perspective, it was only post anatomy-> standard anatomical position that wounds etc were described from the body
Looking at other images of the tomb effigy, it looks exactly like the scar you would expect. It could have been hidden in profile by high cheekbones.
I had a staph infection in 2020. I spent a month in the hospital, had 3 surgeries, lost parts of 3 bones in my upper chest, was on antibiotics for 6 weeks after discharge. I’m lucky to be alive. Henry’s physician must have been a fucking genius for his time.
Been there, done that. 2 surgeries on R knee, 14 weeks on meds, then a bleed into the knee cavity.. Knee is awful but alive. Short doctor then, good doctores now.
This was incredibly fascinating. And this was the first time I ever heard that the arrows were held on with beeswax. An incredibly devious thing to do but war is war.
Devious?
Why would medieval arrowsmiths or fletchers go to the bother of a more permanent method of affixing the arrowheads?
@@ianmacfarlane1241you don’t pay attention, do you?
@@VanityDivinedListen smartarse, I paid attention - I'm fully aware of the fact that the method of joining the arrow shaft to the arrowhead caused horrendous problems for the injured and the medics who were treating the injured, but there's nothing to suggest that's the sole reason beeswax was used.
Again, if the beeswax held the arrowhead in position as it struck home, why would the arrowsmiths go to the bother of using a more durable method?
Arrows had to be manufactured in huge numbers, and sometimes at a pace - why would they take more manufacturing steps?
@@ianmacfarlane1241
Please preface this with my ignorance of medieval anything.
I always thought that they were you know stuck in there somewhat permanently.
But learning that they held it with beeswax is a devious tactic in my opinion And please read devious as smart or cunning.
And the other reason I never would have thought of beeswax is you're in a march and it's kind of hot out I would think that the V6 would melt but history definitely says otherwise.
As I said war is war. You do what you have to do to win.
@@ianmacfarlane1241 such an annoying little shit. no one will tell you in person, so there you go
Henry was a serious bad-ass.
Not having seen anything about this before, I found it absolutely fascinating. What a feat! Thank you, both of you!
A glimpse into the cutting edge of surgery and medicine back then. Thank you. Amazing.
What a brave warrior he was, already at such a young age. And what a phenomenal surgeon! Both true heroes of their time...
🐚🌸
Sounds like Dr John Bradmore was ahead of his time
The head is actually one of the least painful places on your body to be operated on. It’s the fact that you’re being operated on in full view that freaks you out and when that happens you think it should hurt and then you start trashing, hence the amazing amount of pain killers. They not only dull the pain but probably helped keep him calm.
This is exactly why I hate the idea of LASIK, you do it conscious 😭 if I ever get LASIK they better give me so much laughing gas bc ain’t no way, ain’t no way
The literal version of Monty Python "Tis but a flesh wound!" with the arrow.
I had heart surgery and after a bit the nurse came in to remove the drain tube and the temp pacemaker wires, the drain tube was about 1/2" diameter plastic going in thru an incision a few inches above the belly button as did the 2 braided wires. The nurse said it will feel very strange coming out, like a zipper. I got ready for the 1,2, THREE PULL!! and it didnt hurt at all but it really felt strange because we have nerve sensors in those areas but they are almost never actually used, so the two pulling out procedures was really and odd feeling.
I think the inside of the wound goes mostly numb, I had basically a 1/2" hole the drain tube was in, granted it was very smooth and nothing was being pushed back in like the Prince had, but that and the two smaller holes for the braided wires apparently went mostly numb as all I felt was a kind of zipper being undone effect. I was not on pain meds, I didn't even need the tylenol they were pushing.
this was fascinating. thank you for sharing
Just fascinating - thank you!
Absolutely fascinating, far more sophisticated surgery than I thought would have been available at the time. Terrific video!
Glad to see Dr. Michael Livingston. Have had the pleasure of meeting him a couple of times. Wonderful human and a fantastic author.
I have been involved in the care of several trauma cases where slim foreign objects have been impalled in the face of patients in relatively the same area. In 3 cases the patients never lost consciousness and other then the fact that they could see the protruding end of what impalled them they had no idea how deep it was or how serious it was as they swore they felt no pain. 2 of the
cases were from archery accidents and one was scrapnel from an explosion caused by a fire in an industrial warehouse. Seen many others similiar to those where the patients had to quickly given strong sedation as the pain was so great they could not hold still.
Of course there was a great deal of dus cussion around what the mechanism was that made such a difference in the cases where the patients said they felt no pain, and it was both the opinion of the trauma surgeon, neurosurgeon and anethesiologist that there was damage to the major nerve that supplied pain receptors to that area of the face so the pain was their but not getting back to registering with the brain. Basically, they were luck compared to those with similar wounds where the nerve ir nerves were nit damaged.
While in the 3 cases that escaped the pain of the trauma they all had limited feeling or no pain or hot or cold sensation depending on just how badly the nerve damage was.
That very well may have been the case with Hal and it was just never recorded as to whether he had loss of sensation on the injured side as feelings, nerves and pain were even less understood then anything else in medicine at that time, plus not having feeling on your face or anywhere actually would have been construed as a disability a Prince or King would not wish to admit to especially as something like that back then was often thought to be so ething that could be passed on to children (again lack of medical understanding) and especially a Prince who would want to marry would not admit to having a problem like this.
Watching this makes me so grateful for modern medicine
Modern medicine comes with modern warfare.
Modern medicine comes with modern warfare.
Henry V was grateful for modern medicine as well.
Today's medical technology will seem barbaric to people living 400 years in the future.
Modern medicine comes with modern bills.... They have to keep you alive to pay the bill for the rest of your life.
@@mh53j Not in every country
Wow - I'm a big fan of "Prince Hal" but I had no idea that wound was so deep!!!! 😮
The things they could do already back then... it's inspiring. I'd like to think people in the year 2600 look back at us and think it's amazing what we could do despite not having something that will be discovered 300 years from now and which people in 600 years can't imagine doing without.
I already knew this basic story, but I had no idea the Prince was only 16! Also, if you don't already have Michael Livingston's new book, "Agincourt", you should remedy that situation at your earliest convenience. (He's the guy in this video.)
It’s on my ( very long ) reading list.
I’m sure being 16 helped him keep going, as well as the adrenaline of battle. They had to be tough back then!
Thank you, Mr. Wright for a fascinating demonstration.
I love learning of the brilliance of our ancestors. Humans can sometimes be so ingenious.
Adrenaline rush, mad determination...and he was rather distracted w the horrible war and fighting to survive...one tough young man ..they don't make em like that anymore
Ive heard it explained before but could never understand how it actually worked. Both were extraordinary men
Harrowing. I can't imagine the pain that the healing process would incur over those weeks.
Modern medicine calls it 'healing by secondary intention'. Years ago I had an abscess opened up on my thigh, that was then packed with gauze and recurrently removed as the flesh healed underneath.
Maybe he was one of that small group of people who dont feel pain?
I think people, especially those trained in war like the knights and soldiers, had a much higher pain threshold than we do. Anesthetics were practically inexistant (I was even surprised to learn in that video that the physician had something that could dull the pain), medical science was not very developed, and whatever happened to you, you just had to live with it. They weren't pampered like we are.
They famously used opium for his care and during agincourt on injured men at arms
Dude, people were far more trained to endure pain in those days.
Wonderful story. It must very hard to judge the angle by feel alone. Interestingly, when Lincoln was shot, the bullet was lodged behind his eye, and the surgeon present, using a metal probe, couldn't locate the bullet, creating two new wounds in the process. In that documentary a physician said that feeling the path of the bullet with the pinkie finger was the only way before x-rays.
read about James Garfield US president and how they used metal probes to try to locate the bullet in his wounds and probably contributed to infecting his wound further and to his demise.
Garfield’s injury as well.
Ok. I'm loving Wright. He's a great teacher here.
Thanks, I winced the entire time. Thoroughly unenjoyable, would watch again. I think?
lol. Agreed.
Highly educational and extremely unpleasant 😂
Amazing to develop surgical techniques still used hundreds of years later.
What a genius. Can you imagine what he could do now. I am in awe.
Amazing story. Without anesthesia. Great video!
One of history's most gifted surgeons.
Mediaeval soldiers may not have had knowledge of bacteria and no diagnostic equipment, but they had known about wounds and infections for millennia. There is even ancient evidence of trepanning the skull.
If they were using things to prevent infection they obviously knew a little something about bacteria.
@@frankiethefrog1752Certainly. Mold packing wounds to stave off infection goes all the way back to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.
We, with modern medical technology, just managed to understand and perfect what was already understood as workable in the past. Definitely a lineage of betterment.
Of course they knew about wounds yet infection? I think that would have been an entirely different matter until the 18th or 19th century methinks. This fellow must have been thinking outside the box. Amazing.
fascinating and brilliantly demonstrated and well presented. Thank you
Henry V got better treatment than most soldiers. Most would not have lived.
DUDE! What!?! i was wincing the entire video! LOL
I am so grateful I found History Hit. I subscribe and follow every podcast. Some of my favorites are betwixt the sheets , and The Ancients is definitely my favorite of all the channels. Every subject is like a deep dive but done with an expert or professor in the field. Thanks History Hit for taking me to college for free!
That is exactly the technique to use while healing a deep foot wound I had a few years ago, healing from the bottom up.
He was a great physician. Surely knowledge was gained from treating battlefield wounds and taught to new trainees.
Terrific! This is just the type of video that I come to CZcams for.
Such great presenters and production. Cheers.
I didn't learn about him in school but his men must really respect him and been very loyal 16 and kickin' butt
That is a genuinely skilled surgeon.
Please upload more of these 2 men they are amazing together and make it such a great watch
That was one heck of a surgeon!
Watching him wiggle the tool back and forth after he's gripped the arrow head had me cringing so hard!
People always talk bad about medieval doctors some times with good reasons. This shows that at times they were pretty good especially considering what tools they had and lack of modern medicine.
Not such great care for those who weren't heirs to the kingdom, I suspect... Especially if you were one of the 90%+ of the population who were peasants.
The sort of surgery only a very experienced physician could perform.
Amazing. It's crazy that he successfully removed that arrowhead back then
Excellent mini documentary! You know they’re good when you want to immediately watch more and check out your bookcases.😊
Absolutely fascinating! Thank you!
Really interesting, thanks for sharing
Very cool video! This was really interesting to learn- thank you for showing us!
Absolutely fascinating! Thank you❤
Phenomenal tecnich considering the period. I had no idea! Thank you.
Great story!! ... I was on the Edge of my seat !!
Amazing! What a great surgeon and how lucky was the injured and so brave in his tolerance to pain.
Incredible surgery done on the future, Henry V. Lessons learned even after centuries. Wow.
This video was well done and to the point.
The arrow extraction tool uses the same principle on a much smaller scale of a lewis that builders use to lift blocks of stone. The Romans are known to have used it but its origins are unknown.
Short and exciting to watch.
Had that procedure of healing from the inside out done on myself with the wound after surgery being packed in then changed daily. It was incredibly painful and took 3 to four weeks to heal.
Also Shakespeare: "Tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide as a church door; but tis enough, t'will serve." 😅
What an amazing and innovative doctor of the day.
Very interesting. I can't imagine how painful it wouldve been. 😮
This was excellent, well done
I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
I had an emergency appendectomy a few years back. I told the surgeon not to remove the staples closing the wound because at the time I’d been a type 1 diabetic for over 30 years and healed more slowly than usual. He removed them anyway and soon the wound opened. It had to heal from the inside out. The scar is worse than it should have been but I did heal after a few weeks.
I'm glad you healed!! Did they use a scalpel because the appendix burst, or was about to? I'm told they generally prefer "keyhole" surgery and go in through the belly button now. Anyway, glad to hear it all worked out. I'm T2D, so I'm always watching any wounds I have. So far I've been lucky and only had one surgery where an incision site had "wound breakdown." So it's more noticeable, like you said, but I did heal.
Back in the 1930s, my uncle got severe appendicitis when he was about seven or eight. My grandpa RAN with him in his arms all the way to the hospital. Uncle Jack had a fever and terrible pain. The doctors put a drain in his appendix and hoped his body would clear the infection on its own. Because as you know, a burst appendix is super dangerous even now. So if it had burst it would've been *a very bad thing* before penicillin was available. At least they understood how to create sterile conditions by then. He did recover, thank goodness. And he's still kicking around at 92!
@@jooleebilly Have to say I don't understand why they'd go via the navel to reach the appendix, which is at the bottom right-hand corner of the abdominal cavity, where my own incision was made.
I experienced the same thing, but for me I got an infection within the sewn up wound. They had to cut me open again and it had to grow closed as well. Nasty and very deep scar, but I'm still here!
@@Krzyszczynski They usually make 3-4 tiny incisions for laparoscopic or keyhole surgeries. One for the camera so they can see the video feed, and the others for whatever instruments are needed. Much less invasive than open surgery and much faster healing and recovery time. And very tiny scars!
@@Krzyszczynski They make usually 3-4 small incisions, one at the lower end of the navel and 2 (sometimes 3) more close to the lower end of your belly (and sometimes one at the side of your belly), the instruments are fed through long tubes, and so is the camera. They also blow air in to separate the tissues and make everything easier to see (the air is sucked back out by a pump after they are done). They use the belly button as an incision site in most laparoscopic surgeries as far as I know (not just appendix), I think it's a convenient location, plus it hides the scar well (it is hidden in the fold). Your surgery sounds like it was a laparotomy, where they cut just above the appendix and spread the tissues until they get to it, rather than feeding the instruments through and making their way there.
Very interesting and fascinating! The young king was very lucky to have such a skilled and brave surgeon. The arrow must have passed through the parts of the skull where there are sinuses, and not touched the brain. It made me think of something I read. An American boy of about ten was hit in the face by a javelin. It passed through his head but there was no bleeding and the boy was still conscious. After an x-ray and examination at the hospital, the surgeon could ease the spear out and there was only a drop or two of blood. It turned out that the javelin had hit "perfectly", going in at the eyehole and then passing through the sinuses under the brain, stopping at the back of the skull. The boy lost one eye instead of his life. 😳
Kevin Hicks does an amazing in-depth analysis on this very subject!
At first im thinking how does an arrow to the side of the face penetrate six inches. Then they make it perfectly clear 😢🤯. That arrow made it all the way through the front through bone to his spine!
As they said the speed and force of the arrow ;)
A doctor above posted and said it must have gone through the sinus cavity - which is a cavity, hollow, which meant the damage was more limited and an easier spot for healing (wound could drain through the nose, rather like a runny nose). The lucky part was stopping short of the critical area just behind the sinus cavity.