"Back in the 1970s and 1980s we'd call this a career-ender of an injury, because doctors back then didn't know how to fix it, but we have better techniques and more practice at it, so we now call this injury -- even as horrific as it looked -- a 'career delayer, ' " said Webb.

CNN: Vonn's injury 'career-delayer,' not 'career ender'

It is possible that they knew about it and turned a blind eye, allowed it to happen or even actively encouraged it - what we would now call "complicity" - as well as the other possibility of having known nothing.

BBC: MI6 and the death of Patrice Lumumba

Scientists of the day thought graphite was a form of lead--that's why we still call the stuff in pencils "lead, " even though it's graphite.

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