56. A Disturbing Mistake

This dark fact involves infants, so skip this one if that’s a sensitive topic for you. Up until the mid-1980s, we thought babies couldn’t feel pain. In fact, it wasn’t until 1987 that pediatricians declared it unethical to perform operations on infants without anesthesia. Yup, you read that right, 1987.

So that means doctors performed painful surgeries on newborns and babies without any pain-relieving measures. It was believed that babies couldn’t feel pain because they often don’t react in the same ways as adults or older children do. They can’t speak for themselves, so doctors would have to interpret their body language. As a result, researchers thought babies hadn’t developed the neurological ability to process pain. Thankfully, we now know better and can safely administer anesthesia to a small child when necessary.