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

Abstract

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.