Operations in the early 19th century resulted in a high death rate. Explain why so many patients sis not survive there operations.

A person going into hospital at this time would hope for a good surgeon. He would be quick in removing the limb and tying up the arteries. This would usually take less than a minuet to actually remove the limb and another minuet to unclip the piece of animal gut from his coat and tie up the arteries to stop even more blood loss. There are records of a high being done in 14 seconds, something which would now take an hour. ‘There was one operating day a week and surgeons came into the theatre and operated in the oldest frock coats the possessed. Surgery was something like a struggle in a shambles. The patient, drugged with brandy, having to be held down by half-a-dozen brawny assistants whilst the operator performed his gruesome job with the greatest possible speed.’ This is typically how an amputation was carried out. Under the operating table there would be a box of sawdust that would be used to catch all the blood that spewed from the patient’s body. Because of the immense amount of blood lost during the operation, the box would have to be replaced with fresh sawdust, and the blood soaked sawdust throne away. The surgeon would use various instruments to carry out his work. Scalpels would be used to cut the outer skin and for the outward incisions and many forceps would be placed in the fresh wound to prod and move about in all directions. The most gruesome but vital instrument was the saw. This would be used to cut through the bone of the limb and would need to be very sharp to make a quick and actuate cutting. After a surgeon had finished all of his operations for the day, he would hang up his blood and puss stained coat, wash his hands and forearms and proceed to go around his ward.

At this time there was little understanding of the concept that for patients to recover from surgery, they needed to be kept away from any germs that they may catch. This meant that surgery and the after care had to be kept clean and hygiene was vital. During the operation at this time, the surgeon would wear his oldest frock coat, as to not ruin any new ones he may have. This coat was rarely washed and would be stained with blood and puss from pervious operations. This coat would be home to millions or even billions of germs that could very easily be passed on to the patient he was operating on at that time, causing the doctor unknowingly to pass on the infection from patient to patient. Now a days, we know the cause of infection and can prevent it by wearing clean clothes that have been specially treated so as to not pass on infection. After an operation the surgeon would just quickly rinse there hands and instruments under water that at this time was properly infected with countless diseases. Neither the surgeon’s hands nor the instruments were cleaned thoroughly or properly. The floors of the hospital and operating theatres were made of ordinary wood which would absorb all the germs that were throne onto it from the blood spilt onto it. Owing to the lack of cleaning, it would become saturated with impurities and organic matter which when washed off gave the smell of something other than soap and water! Walls and ceilings were also saturated with impurities. The conditions of the 19th century were not acceptable for people to live in when they were trying to recover from an operation. They would more often than not, become infected and die very shortly after the operation. In the 21st century we know that a hospital should be kept as clean as possible to help and aid the sick to get better cannot recover in filth. Because of the awful conditions these patients had to live in, sepsis was a very common condition and a major killer in hospital wards. Another cause of death was problems arising from the surgeons making mistakes from rushing the operations. The surgeon was expected to carry out the operation in under a minuet which is far too short a time to make sure they were precise in there work. If the surgeon was unlucky they could hit a major artery and a patient would die from blood loss. Because of this, speed was the cause of mistakes which ultimately could kill the patient. Surgeons needed something to enable them to take more time with there work and allow them to operate for longer.

At this time death rates were extremely high as a result of unclean hospitals and the lack of knowledge that the doctors about medicine when compared to today’s standards. The nurses at this time were awful. Many of them were drunk half the time, and most did not have any medical knowledge of the patient’s condition and had no idea about the after care the patient needed. They were not trained and nursing was not seen ad a profession at all and most nurses would be women from the factories that had been sacked or were drunkards. The general standard of hygiene affected the death rates but the general attitude and level of knowledge that the doctors had at this time also affected the amount of deaths in hospitals. Doctors were very negative towards new ideas and did not try to be accepting of them.