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NOVA

Season 15 · Episode 12

Pioneers of Surgery: The Brutal Craft

0.055mSeptember 6, 1988

Part one of a four-part series on the pioneers of modern surgery relives the early days, when surgery was practiced without the benefit of anaesthesia or antisceptics and patients usually died.

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Episodes

Episode 1Top Gun and Beyond
Episode 2How to Create a Junk Food
Episode 3Buried in Ice
Episode 4Why Planes Burn
Episode 5Battles in the War on Cancer: A Wonder Drug on Trial
Episode 6Battles in the War on Cancer: Turning the Tide
Episode 7The Mystery of the Master Builders
Episode 8Whale Rescue
Episode 9The Man Who Loved Numbers
Episode 10Race for the Superconductor
Episode 11Can You Still Get Polio?
Episode 12Pioneers of Surgery: The Brutal Craft
Episode 13Pioneers of Surgery: Into the Heart
Episode 14Pioneers of Surgery: New Organs for Old
Episode 15Pioneers of Surgery: Beyond the Knife
Episode 16Can the Vatican Save the Sistine Chapel?
Episode 17Can the Next President Win the Space Race?
Episode 18Do Scientists Cheat?
Episode 19Who Shot President Kennedy?
Episode 20The Light Stuff
Episode 21The All-American Bear
Episode 22Can We Make a Better Doctor?