Blood and Guts: A History of Surgery

Episode 5: Bloody Beginnings

September 17, 2008 • 60 min

How surgery was dragged out of the dark ages, transforming from butchery into a science. Presenter Michael Mosley finds out how the early days of surgery were dark and barbaric, when the surgeon's knife was more likely to kill you than save you, and invasive medicine generally meant being bloodlet by leeches to within an inch of your life.