And yet the hard truth remained: delaying amputation would undoubtedly put Greenlees’s life in danger. If the boy developed a hospital infection as a result, sawing off his leg afterward might not be enough to stop the relentless pursuit of sepsis once it took hold. At the same time, Lister still believed that carbolic acid could stave off infection, and if it did, Greenlees’s leg—and his livelihood—could be saved. This was the opportunity he had been waiting for. Lister made a split-second decision. He would take his chances with the antiseptic.
An ethical dilemma that the good surgeon rightly noted but in the end, he still gambled with that child's life.
