Joseph Lister: Many People Died After Surgery… Until He Made Hospitals Clean

In the 1860s, some surgeons were proud of their dirty coats.

Then an 11-year-old boy arrived with a badly broken leg.

The bone had come through the skin.

Would he keep his leg?

This is the story of Joseph Lister.

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Infection. An infection is an illness caused by germs that get into the body.

After surgery, many people died of infection.

Antiseptic. An antiseptic is a substance that kills germs and stops infection.

He decided to use carbolic acid as an antiseptic.

Wound. A wound is an injury where the skin is cut or broken.

In those days, a wound like this often meant losing the leg.

Instrument. An instrument is a tool for careful work, especially one that doctors use.

He and his team washed their hands and their instruments in carbolic acid.

Sterile. Sterile means completely clean, with no germs at all.

Later surgeons made their instruments completely sterile with heat.

Now, one pattern: it wasn't until, then a time, then that.

It shows that something happened later than we might expect.

It wasn't until 1865 that he tried carbolic acid.

It wasn't until 1865 that he tried carbolic acid.

Ready? Let's begin.

Joseph Lister was born near London in 1827, into a Quaker family.

His father made better lenses for microscopes, so Joseph grew up looking at tiny living things.

He studied medicine in London.

As a student, he is said to have watched one of the first operations with anaesthetic.

Now people slept through surgery.

But a bigger danger remained.

After surgery, many people died of infection.

Wounds turned red and swollen, and the wards smelled terrible.

Most doctors blamed bad air.

In 1860, he became a professor of surgery in Glasgow.

It wasn't until the mid-1860s that a chemistry professor showed him the work of Louis Pasteur.

Pasteur had shown that tiny living germs make things rot.

Lister had an idea.

Perhaps germs were also causing infection in wounds.

If he could kill them, people might live.

He had read that carbolic acid helped to clean the sewage of a town.

He decided to use carbolic acid as an antiseptic.

In August 1865, the boy from the start of our story arrived: James Greenlees, 11 years old.

The wheel of a cart had gone over his leg.

In those days, a wound like this often meant losing the leg, or even dying.

It wasn't until 1865 that he tried carbolic acid.

Lister covered the wound with cloth soaked in it.

Days passed, and there was no infection.

After six weeks, the bone had healed.

The boy kept his leg.

In 1867, he published his results.

Over the next years, he and his team washed their hands and their instruments in carbolic acid.

In his wards, deaths after amputations went down from about 45% to about 15%.

Many surgeons were sceptical.

Some laughed at the idea of invisible germs.

But slowly, the results changed their minds.

In 1871, he even treated an infection under Queen Victoria's arm.

Later surgeons went further.

They wore gloves and gowns.

Later surgeons made their instruments completely sterile with heat.

But Lister's ideas led the way.

It wasn't until 1897 that a doctor was made a lord, and that doctor was Lister.

A famous mouthwash was named after him, but he had nothing to do with it.

He died in 1912.

Let's review. After surgery, many people died of infection.

He decided to use carbolic acid as an antiseptic.

In those days, a wound like this often meant losing the leg.

He and his team washed their hands and their instruments in carbolic acid.

Later surgeons made their instruments completely sterile with heat.

And remember: it wasn't until 1865 that he tried carbolic acid.

Joseph Lister's story teaches us: the things we cannot see can matter the most.

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