Journal of Trauma & Treatment

Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson's Death at the Battle of Trafalgar: A Neurosurgeon's Forensic Medical Analysis

Abstract

Daniel E Nijensohn

Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, the greatest British naval hero, was fatally wounded during the Battle of Trafalgar. Conventional theory holds that he died mainly of an injury to a major blood vessel in the chest. However, a review of the empirical evidence-with the benefit of modern medical science-, suggests that the primary cause of death was a spinal neurogenic shock from transection of the mid thoracic spinal cord. These conditions do not necessarily exclude each other.