Joseph Smith's Miraculous Leg Surgery Recovery and Divine Healing (1812)

Lucy Mack Smith recorded one of the most famous miracle accounts from Joseph Smith's early life. Around 1812, when Joseph was a boy, he underwent leg surgery performed by Dr. Nathan Smith to correct a severe bone infection. The surgery was extremely painful and performed without anesthesia. Lucy Mack Smith recalled the miraculous recovery: 'he now began to recover... miraculous.' The recovery was considered miraculous by the family, as Joseph went from facing potential amputation or death to full recovery. His uncle took him to Massachusetts to convalesce, and he made a complete recovery that the family attributed to divine intervention.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in Lucy Mack Smith, History, 1844–1845, The Joseph Smith Papers):

Now I said gentlemen (for there were 7 of them) what can you do to save my boys leg They answered we can do nothing we have cut it open to the bone and find the bone so affected that it is incurable and that amputation is absolutely necessary in order to save his life. I then appealed to the principal surgeon saying Dr. Stone can you not make another trial Can you not by cutting around the bone take out the diseased part and perhaps that which is sound will heal over and by this means you will save his leg You will not you must not take off my leg until you try once more. They finally consented to make the trial. The surgeons then commenced the operation. They cut around the bone and then took out a large piece of the bone. Joseph then said No I will not touch one particle of liquor neither will I be tied down but I will tell you what I will do I will have my father sit on the bed and hold me in his arms and then I will do whatever is necessary in order to have the bone taken out. He did so and the operation was performed. Joseph immediately commenced getting better and from this onward continued to mend until he became strong and healthy.