Sir Winston S. Churchill

On December 13, 1931 while on a lecture tour in New York City, Winston Churchill was struck by a car and seriously injured. Used to traffic moving along the left side of the street, he forgot to look to his right when crossing busy Fifth Avenue and was hit. Taken to Lenox Hill Hospital, he was lucky to have as his anesthesiologist. Dr. Charles Sanford,one of the few physicians specializing in anesthesiology in the early 1930s, who went on to be an innovative inventor in the anesthesiology field.

Read Winston Churchillâs vivid description of his experience undergoing general anesthesia with nitrous oxide in this excerpt from Dr. Gerald Zeitlinâs book Laughing and Crying About Anesthesia: A Memoir of Risk and Safety which appeared in the February 2012 (Vol.38:2) issue of Anesthesiology News.

Reprinted with permission of Anesthesiology News and Dr. Gerald Zeitlin.