J Lakin [Shepshed Town] had a leg amputated in 1899 following a tragic accident in a first round Whitwick Charity Cup tie against Coalville Town. A collection was made on the ground, and a sum of £1 5s 6d was realised for the unfortunate player.
It seems likely that Lakin had a compound fracture of the tibia or fibula. Immediate amputation through the thigh was standard practice at the time to reduce the likelihood of infection. Even then the mortality from these amputations was 25% in the hands of the best surgeons and 50% in hospitals less carefully managed. Conservative treatment was much worse. Mortality from compound fractures of the femur so treated was 80%, and from compound fractures of the tibia around 50%. Some patients died of shock due to the sheer agony of surgery, suffering fatal heart attacks on the operating table. Others bled out, even though Victorian-era surgeons employed a variety of brutal, often effective methods, to stop bleeding. But in most cases, patients died of infection. Indeed, some hospitals in dirty, crowded London during the late nineteenth century even billed patients booked in for surgery for their own burial! On the plus side, you were given a full refund of these funeral costs if you beat the odds and made it off the operating table alive!
Lakin was more than likely knocked unconscious by chloroform administered by inhalation. Although often effective, patients, however, sometimes still woke up screaming in agony. Surgeons, who took a perverse pride in their bloodied aprons – the dirtier a smock was, the better (and the more deadly) – would often fight among themselves, with many violently opposed to the idea that they should wash their hands! Speed was of the essence to reduce the likelihood of infection.
On one occasion, famed surgeon Robert Liston was due to perform a routine leg amputation. He approached the procedure with his usual speed and bravado, asking his assistant to time him as he raised his scalpel. Unfortunately, in his haste, he managed to cut two of his assistant’s fingers off. Then he swung his knife back, slashing the coat of a spectator. That man dropped dead of a heart attack, while the stumps where Liston’s assistant’s fingers used to be soon became infected, with fatal consequences. Needless to say, the patient also died. And that was just one botched operation! Liston also famously chopped off a man’s testicles whilst trying to take off his leg, and yet was still seen as one of Britain’s finest physicians.
A number of benefit games were played to provide for Lakin and his family. It is not known how long he lived after his amputation.