The fashionable practice of bloodletting in yesteryear for most conditions is now discredited.

So you can imagine my amazement when I realised that one of my patients was potentially saved in a sequence of medical interventions, of which bloodletting may have played a crucial role.

She looked younger than her years with her ruddy cheeks, and she kept fit as a keen walker.

She maintained a healthy diet and lifestyle, a never-smoker with low blood pressure.