Pres. Garfield, a Victim of Bad Doctoring

President James Garfield was shot walking through a train station on his way to a college reunion in July of 1881. He was shot by a disgruntled lawyer denied a diplomatic post.

Doctors could not find the bullet, and turned a 3-inch wound into an infected 20-inch cannonball hole and they punctured his liver!. Garfield struggled all summer and died in September, and they found the bullet in an autopsy in a non-life threatening location. Sometimes, “no medicine is the best medicine.”

Assassin Charles Guiteau based his defense on blaming the doctors, but was convicted and hung anyway.