Washington’s doctors absolved

Poor medical care didn’t kill George Washington, a new study con­cludes—his fi­nal ill­ness was a hope­less situa­tion.

The death of the U.S. found­ing fa­ther from a throat in­fec­tion at 67 trig­gered an im­me­di­ate and still-smoul­der­ing de­bate over wheth­er doc­tors con­tri­but­ed to his de­mise, in par­tic­u­lar through their co­pi­ous blood ex­trac­tions. Blood­let­ting was stand­ard med­i­cal prac­tice then, though it was al­ready ques­tioned in some quar­ters.


Source: http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/080819_washington