From the screams of the operating theater and the race for patents to the death of a pop star and the current hope for a surprising drug that could mitigate side effects, the story of anesthesia has been anything but sedate.
Those who gathered in the operating theater on October 16, 1846, at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) witnessed the closest thing to a miracle that rational men of medicine ever see. The venue was located far from the patient wards, so those in residence could not hear the anguished wa…