When James A. Garfield was sworn in on March 4, 1881 to become the twentieth president of America, little did he know how short his term would be. He was shot only four months into his presidency and would die an agonizing death seventy-nine days later. Garfield’s death was to a great extent caused by his doctors’ refusal to apply knowledge about antisepsis, despite the fact that Joseph Lister had reported his observations more than a decade earlier. Lister’s theories had been accepted by physicians in Europe but were looked down upon by many surgeons on this side of the pond, including those in leading positions in American surgery. A deranged Charles Julius Guiteau may have had a point when during his murder trial, he exclaimed, “Yes, I shot the President, but his physicians killed him.”

Strobel RM, Weimann A, Wobith M.

BJS 2025; 112: znaf238.