There are many medical reasons that can cause black stools that are tarry with a foul smell, but sometimes dark stools are caused by eating certain foods or taking iron supplements. However, black stools can also be a result of bleeding, and the darker color indicates that the blood could be coming from a point in the upper gastrointestinal tract.
Gertrude Levandowski survived a 96-hour procedure at a Chicago hospital to remove a giant ovarian cyst; the longest surgery. The second longest surgery ever was 40 hours long and that was to remove 6 limbs from a 8 limed baby in India. But the most common longest surgery is spinal cord surgery it is a 14 hour surgery.
Surgery before anesthesia. by John T. Sullivan, MD MGH anesthesiology resident. Elective surgery was performed very infrequently prior to the advent of effective anesthesia. From 1821 to 1846, the annual reports of the MGH recorded 333 surgeries, representing barely more than one case per month. Surgery was a last and desperate resort.