Treasure Hunting

I was reading a post by Carl Schroeder from Kalalau’s Korner about risks with cochlear implant. He starts the post with a metal detecting story that I thought was very interesting, and I’d never heard it.

The story goes, President James Abram Garfield was shot in 1881 at the Baltimore & Potomac Railroad Depot. Three weeks later, Alexander Graham Bell was summoned to the White House. Apparently, Bell had a new invention that was similar to a modern day mine detector. He was called to probe the wound with it to find the bullet, but was unsuccessful in his attempts. It turns out, Bell was placing his detector in the wrong location. The bullet had entered the right side of the spine, but it traveled downward, and to the left. The bullet ended up having a cyst grow around it, making it harmless, but due to the repeated surgeries with unsterilized tools, Garfield suffered infection, blood poisoning, and pneumonia causing his eventual death.

I’m not so sure this is really Bell’s fault. Useless Information has more details in you’re still on the fence about this event.

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