BALTIMORE — Abraham Lincoln might have survived being shot if today's medical technology had existed in 1865.
Given that scenario, the question is whether Lincoln would have recovered well enough to return to office, a doctor and a historian said Friday at an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference on the deaths of historic figures.
While the conference has usually re-examined the deaths of historic figures to determine if the diagnosis of the time was correct, this year's event asks if Lincoln could have been saved and what impact that would have had.
Dr. Thomas Scalea, the physician in chief at the University of Maryland's Shock Trauma Center, said brain injuries are unpredictable but Lincoln would have stood a good chance of surviving. "I don't believe that the president had a uniformly fatal injury," said Scalea, who explained how Lincoln would have been treated at his center, the world's first dedicated trauma center.
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The trauma center can conduct CT scans, X-rays and other tests within minutes of arrival.
Physical therapy, nutrition and other rehabilitative treatment also can make for dramatic improvements, though recovery varies by patient, Scalea said.
"He probably would have been left with substantial disability, but you never really know," the surgeon told the conference.
Lincoln died within 10 hours of being shot in the head at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865.
