When the future King Edward VII came down with appendicitis (or ‘perityphlitis’, as it was called back then) in June 1902, mortality rates for the disease were over 25%.
It was about two weeks before his scheduled coronation on June 26, 1902; and Edward resisted having an appendectomy, which was then a relatively new procedure.
But a surgeon Mr Frederick Treves made it clear to Edward that he would probably die without it. And Treves drained Edward’s infected abscess, without removing the organ, at Buckingham Palace.
Edward recovered and was crowned on August 9, 1902.
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