20th President of the United Sates Died due to Poor Hand-Washing     

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On July 2, 1881, the 20th President of the United States, James Abram Garfield was the victim of an attempted assassination by a crazed gunman in Washington DC.  One bullet only grazed his arm but another had lodged itself somewhere inside the President's body. 

President Garfield was rushed to the White House, having never lost consciousness. For the next eighty days, sixteen doctors were consulted.

The first doctor, Willard Bliss, placed his unwashed finger into the wound (hand-washing had been preached, but like today, was not always practiced) to find the bullet. 

Then the army surgeon general stuck his unwashed finger into the wound and dug as deep as he could. This was followed by the navy surgeon general who searched with his finger so deeply that this time he punctured the liver (damage the bullet never did). 

Doctors continued to probe for the bullet with their unwashed fingers.  With Garfield's condition growing steadily worse, doctors operated in an attempt to remove the slug. It was not found. 

In the end, they managed to take a 3 inch wound and turn it into a twenty inch canal that was heavily infected.  The deep wound with its massive infection, coupled with possible blood poisoning from the bullet, caused the President's heart to weaken. 

Garfield had a massive heart attack several days later and on September 19th, 1881, Garfield passed away. 

At the autopsy, examiners determined that the bullet had lodged itself some four inches from the spine in a protective cyst.  It is widely accepted that had doctors practiced proper hand washing and refrained from invasive attempts to remove the bullet, Garfield would have survived.

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