Garfield was shot four months after his inauguration, by Charles Guiteau. He had been rebuffed in his attempts to be named ambassador to France, and believed that he would receive great acclaim for killing Garfield. Right after the shooting, doctors were sticking unsterilized fingers into the wound, probing unsuccessfully for the bullet and introducing infection more lethal than the bullet. Garfield then went under the care of Dr. Willard Bliss, who tightly controlled access to the president, keeping himself solely in charge of treatment. Bliss was a proponent of allopathy, or administering large doses of harsh medicines to counteract the original ailment. Joseph Lister at the same time was attempting to convince American doctors of the importance of antisepsis, preventing infection by destroying germs. Antisepsis means anything coming into the contact with the patient is sterilized, and was already applied with great success in Europe, but largely rejected in America, including by Bliss.
Millard also covers Alexander Graham Bell and his attempts to use his induction balance invention, a precursor to the x-ray machine, to find the bullet in Garfield. Bell was unsuccessful in part because Bliss commanded him to only search the part of the body where he incorrectly believed the bullet to be. Had Garfield been shot fifteen years later, x-rays would have found the bullet, and he would have been treated with antiseptic surgery, certainly surviving. Or, if he had been simply left alone after being shot, he would likely have survived, with the bullet remaining in his body, but without infection. It was noted how many injured during the Civil War just decades prior would miraculously survive seemingly cataclysmic injuries. They often didn't have access to care, so weren't treated by doctors who introduced germs and ultimately infection into their systems.
Garfield spent two months at the White House, with his body wracked by infection and additionally shoddy care from Bliss, and when gravely ill, demanded to be moved to the coast, where he died two weeks later. Chester Arthur was sworn in as president, and Guiteau then hanged for murder.
