User:Power.corrupts/Sandbox/Heroic medical treatment

Heroic medical treatment is an old term refering to medical interventions of an extraordinary, daring or desparate nature; so extreme that they could possibly result in the very death of the patient they were meant to save: Heroic measures were taken to save his life. The term reflects antiquated medical practices and is rarely used nowadays.

The 1913 Webster dictionary definition is medical "remedies of a severe character, suited to a desperate case".

A 1956 medical article reports heroic treatments of tetanus using curare poison to paralyze the respiratory system and artificial respiration using tracheostomy (incision through the windpipe) without aneshesia.