His Wound Wasn't Fatal. His DOCTORS Were.

In 1881, a bullet hit President James Garfield. It should not have killed him. His doctors did.

On July 2nd, a disappointed office-seeker shot Garfield in a Washington train station. The bullet lodged in his back, missing his spine and vital organs.

Today that wound is survivable. But his lead physician refused to believe in germs. Doctor after doctor probed the wound with unwashed hands and dirty instruments, hunting for the bullet they could not find. Even Alexander Graham Bell brought a metal detector to help.

For eleven weeks they turned a small wound into a massive infection. Garfield wasted away, dropping over eighty pounds. On September 19th, 1881, he died, not from the bullet, but from the men trying to save him.

An autopsy showed the bullet had safely sealed in a cyst. Clean hands might have saved him. Instead, his death helped finally convince America that germ theory was real.

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