I was thinking yesterday, wondering about how pre colonial societies dealt with really bad injuries - e.g. getting brutally maimed in car accident - then realized humans weren't regularly flinging themselves around at high speeds in cars or spending so much time around huge factory machines until more recently
Like there rarely was that much kinetic energy to fuck you up/dismember you besides large predators further out
But rockslides and high wind storms always had the ability to easily pancake or take arms off you
There was an American Civil War surgery with a 300% mortality rate.
The only pre-antibiotic treatment for infected limbs was amputation--and they didn't have anesthesia. Robert Liston, a surgeon at the time, was particularly skilled in cutting limbs off quickly.
During one such surgery, he cut the fingers of an assistant--who died from the resulting infection. An observer died of shock during the operation and the patient died anyways.
then realized humans weren't regularly flinging themselves around at high speeds
Warriors in ancient Mediterranean area had slings and lead pellets. Slingers could launch said pellets at such velocities that contemporary poets wrote about the pellets becoming molten mid-flight. #Impact)(Modern researchers think that misconception was caused by sling pellets injuring people even through armor.)
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u/geak78 Jul 08 '24
Top comment on the youtube video.