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Robert Liston (1794 - 1847) was likely the best surgeon of his day, noted for his skill and his speed in an era prior to anaesthetics. He was able to complete operations in a matter of seconds, in a time when speed was essential to reduce pain and improve the odds of survival of a patient.
There was however the occasion when his operations went wrong due to the speed at which he attempted them. The two most notable examples of this were when he amputated a mans testicles along with his leg by mistake and another operation where the patient died of infection, he cut off the fingers of his assistant (who also died due to infection) and slashed the coat of a spectator who died of fright. Robert Liston is the only surgeon in known history to have performed an operation with a 300% mortality rate.
Liston received his education at Edinburgh University and in 1818 became a surgeon in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. He became Professor of Clinical Surgery at University College, London in 1835, and in 1846, carried out the first public operation using an anaesthetic. He invented locking forceps, and the Liston Splint, used to stabilize dislocations and fractures of the femur.
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