The Bullet That Didn't Kill Garfield - Doctors Did?

Healthcare Mysteries Uncovered · Oct 19, 2026 · 24m

The Bullet That Didn't Kill Garfield - Doctors Did?

Fear that skilled hands turned a survivable wound into a slow, public death: President James A. Garfield was shot on July 2, 1881, survived 79 days, and the bullet rested quietly behind his pancreas while doctors probed the wrong side - so how much of his death was medicine rather than murder?

In this episode, we tell the story of the shooting at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station, the choices that followed in the White House and operating rooms, and the chain of medical decisions that transformed a recoverable injury into a national…