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“JAMES A. GARFIELD . . . MAY HAVE BEEN THE BEST PRESIDENT WE NEVER HAD, OR HARDLY HAD.”
—THE WASHINGTON POST
⚡️🍀⚡️
James Garfield’s path to the presidency had been charmed. A Congressman and self-made man from Ohio, he won the Republican nomination in 1880 without even trying. And his presidency was going well, for the 100 days it lasted.
When Garfield’s luck ran out, it ran out so hard. On his way to catch a train on July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by deranged lawyer Charles Guiteau. And that was only the beginning of his problems.
About ten doctors arrived at the station, probing his wounds with their bare hands and unsterilized medical tools because . . .
Sterile medical procedures weren’t a thing yet. Joseph Lister had pioneered antisepsis 16 years earlier, but Americans still considered it experimental. Within a decade of Garfield’s assassination, sterile medical practice became common.
Several of Garfield’s doctors, including Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss and Dr. Silas Boynton, didn’t get along. They constantly leaked conflicting stories about his recovery to the press.
After the Civil War, it was common knowledge that people could survive with bullets lodged in their bodies. President Andrew Jackson carried a dueling bullet lodged near his heart from 1806 to his death in 1845: uncomfortable, but not life threatening. Garfield’s doctors completely overlooked that fact.
Modern-day evidence suggests that the bullet in Garfield’s body would not have killed him.
Garfield’s doctors spent the summer probing him for the bullet and causing a disgusting infection.
Throughout all of this, Garfield remained so nice. He offered kind encouragement to Dr. Bliss, and one attendant wrote that he “seldom expressed a want.”
X-rays were still about a decade away, so in a bullet-finding attempt, Alexander Graham Bell brought a metal detector prototype to Garfield’s bedside. It was unsuccessful because it was picking up the metal from the springs in Garfield’s mattress, and they were searching the wrong side of his body.
The doctors fed Garfield rectally: a diet of bouillon, egg yolks, milk, whiskey, and opium.
Not surprisingly, he dropped 100 pounds.
He died of infection, pneumonia, hemorrhaging, and starvation on September 19, 1881.
Dr. Bliss billed $25,000 for his services.
Garfield’s body was embalmed incorrectly.
😖
—THE WASHINGTON POST
⚡️🍀⚡️
James Garfield’s path to the presidency had been charmed. A Congressman and self-made man from Ohio, he won the Republican nomination in 1880 without even trying. And his presidency was going well, for the 100 days it lasted.
When Garfield’s luck ran out, it ran out so hard. On his way to catch a train on July 2, 1881, Garfield was shot by deranged lawyer Charles Guiteau. And that was only the beginning of his problems.
About ten doctors arrived at the station, probing his wounds with their bare hands and unsterilized medical tools because . . .
Sterile medical procedures weren’t a thing yet. Joseph Lister had pioneered antisepsis 16 years earlier, but Americans still considered it experimental. Within a decade of Garfield’s assassination, sterile medical practice became common.
Several of Garfield’s doctors, including Dr. Doctor Willard Bliss and Dr. Silas Boynton, didn’t get along. They constantly leaked conflicting stories about his recovery to the press.
After the Civil War, it was common knowledge that people could survive with bullets lodged in their bodies. President Andrew Jackson carried a dueling bullet lodged near his heart from 1806 to his death in 1845: uncomfortable, but not life threatening. Garfield’s doctors completely overlooked that fact.
Modern-day evidence suggests that the bullet in Garfield’s body would not have killed him.
Garfield’s doctors spent the summer probing him for the bullet and causing a disgusting infection.
Throughout all of this, Garfield remained so nice. He offered kind encouragement to Dr. Bliss, and one attendant wrote that he “seldom expressed a want.”
X-rays were still about a decade away, so in a bullet-finding attempt, Alexander Graham Bell brought a metal detector prototype to Garfield’s bedside. It was unsuccessful because it was picking up the metal from the springs in Garfield’s mattress, and they were searching the wrong side of his body.
The doctors fed Garfield rectally: a diet of bouillon, egg yolks, milk, whiskey, and opium.
Not surprisingly, he dropped 100 pounds.
He died of infection, pneumonia, hemorrhaging, and starvation on September 19, 1881.
Dr. Bliss billed $25,000 for his services.
Garfield’s body was embalmed incorrectly.
😖
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