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A Surgeon With 300% Mortality Rate From a Single Operation and Other Historic Screwups

Khalid Elhassan October 11, 2020 32 min

Robert Liston - Surgery — Dr. Robert Liston operating. Wellcome Images

7. Math Mistake Leads to Confusion About a Miracle Plant

Generations of children grew up and were entertained by Popeye the Sailor Man. Thanks to him, many kids have dreamt at some point in their early years that they could gain super powers by overcoming their distaste for spinach. Popeye’s love of spinach was popularized by a receptive public, primed by a widespread belief that spinach was an extraordinarily beneficial food item.

Sadly, Spinach is nothing special – at least insofar as bestowing super powers upon those who eat it. Kids who mastered their gag reflexes long enough to swallow the green stuff were not rewarded by an explosive increase in strength, prowess, or other abilities and talents. However, there was a silver lining, as the kids learned one of life’s early lessons: don’t believe everything you see on TV. As it turns out, the perception of Spinach being a super was caused by a math mistake.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.