Surgeon: News, Blogs and Articles

James A. Garfield’s Mortal Wound

Posted from MedWorm: Surgeons 98 days ago
Surgeon : Surgeons News

James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States, was assassinated in 1881 by gunman Charles J. Guiteau firing into his abdomen. He also suffered a grazing bullet wound to his arm. President James Garfield (photo courtesy Wikipedia) What is not generally recognized is that Garfield lived for eleven weeks after being shot. The mortal injury occurred when a bullet partially transsected the splenic artery, eventually resulting in the days before antibiotics in an infected pseudoaneurysm that ruptured and caused exsanguination and a likely myocardial infarction. A likely case of probable... (original story)