# Could Modern Medicine Have Saved Lincoln? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333 "2003-06-07T20:35:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/1 "2003-06-07T20:35:44Z")
Giving that Lincoln lived for some time after he was shot, and that there wasn’t a lot doctors could do for him back then, I have to wonder if there’d been a modern day ER near Ford’s Theater, if Lincoln could have survived his shooting. I realize that he’d probably be paralyzed or otherwise disabled if he \*did \* live, and that Marfan’s Syndrome might have killed him later on, but is there a reasonable possibility that modern medicine could have kept him alive? ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/2 "2003-06-07T20:40:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \* > Giving that Lincoln lived for some time after he was shot, and that there wasn’t a lot doctors could do for him back then, I have to wonder if there’d been a modern day ER near Ford’s Theater, if Lincoln could have survived his shooting. I realize that he’d probably be paralyzed or otherwise disabled if he \*did \* live, and that Marfan’s Syndrome might have killed him later on, but is there a reasonable possibility that modern medicine could have kept him alive? If I recall, Lincoln was shot in the head. A lot depends on the track of the bullet. Depending on where it went, he might have been left about where Jim Brady was after he got caught in the crossfire during the attempted assasination of Ronald Reagan, or he might have been left a “vegetable”, or it might have been hopeless even with modern medicine. Does anyone know what sort of brain injury the late president suffered in sufficient detail to make an intelligent stab at the question? ---
**Author:** ![Jester\_Boy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jester\_Boy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jester_Boy)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/3 "2003-06-07T21:01:41Z")
I’d bet he could have been saved by modern medicine. Anybody who doesn’t die “instantly” (which usually means before the ambulance arrives) would be a lot better off now than then. Since it did take him a while to expire that means probably some of his problem was shock from loss of blood and infection, and just bad medical instincts trying to deal with a bad wound. All of those are better handled today. Also, I suspect John Wilkes Booth would have been serving 8 years on trial and death row before being hanged. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/4 "2003-06-07T21:02:20Z")
From [http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/t16.htm:](http://www.doctorzebra.com/prez/t16.htm:) > [@](#): > > The bullet from Booth’s gun entered behind the left ear and lodged behind the right eye. When Dr. Charles Leale arrived in Lincoln’s box at Ford’s Theater, he found the President without a radial pulse and breathing laboriously, still sitting upright in his chair. Leale laid him onto the floor, and resuscitated him using various “physiological” techniques. Modern authors speculate that the technique of anal dilation, popular at the time, may have been used. From [http://www.nvrha.com/NEWS.HTM](http://www.nvrha.com/NEWS.HTM) > [@](#): > > Lincoln’s head wound was probed almost non-stop during the last hours of his life. > > When the probe being used was not long enough, soldiers went to local physicians’ homes to obtain a longer one. In the end with each probing, blood and brain matter would ooze out and the President’s vital signs would temporarily improve. … > > Would Lincoln have survived today? > > Experts argue “yes” and “no” to this question. Those who feel Lincoln’s injuries would be survivable argue that the continuous blind probing of his wound only aggravated his injury. … > > The experts do agree, though, that if Lincoln could survive his injuries, he would have significant neurologic deficits, possibly be blind in his left eye and be in some type of comatose state. Gotta love Google. 🙂 FISH ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/5 "2003-06-07T22:27:26Z")
“anal dilation”?? 😕 for a head wound??? 😕 😕 😕 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/6 "2003-06-08T00:17:03Z")
There was an article in American Heritage a few years ago that indicated that it was possible to have saved Lincoln’s life even from the head wound, using medical techniques known at the time. But I believe the doctors treating him either were not experts in those techniques or were too panicked by the situation to handle it properly. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/7 "2003-06-08T01:09:56Z")
\ Apparently, another assassinated president, **McKinley** would probably have lived if he had access to modern medical techniques… he might have survived if had even recieved _competent_ medical attention at the time. \ ---
**Author:** ![barton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@barton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barton)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/8 "2003-06-08T01:24:21Z")
Add Garfield to that ‘saveable’ list as well. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2003, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-modern-medicine-have-saved-lincoln/180333/9 "2003-06-08T02:13:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by vl\_mungo \* > \*\*\ > Apparently, another assassinated president, **McKinley** would probably have lived if he had access to modern medical techniques… he might have survived if had even recieved _competent_ medical attention at the time. > \ \*\* Maybe, maybe not. I think the bullet pretty much destroyed his pancreas. Don’t know how he would have functioned in the early 20th century without one.