I used to be part of the SCA - a medieval/renn recreation group. One of our people used to do this thing called “Kill the audience”.
She’d get the audience to stand then start “killing” them off by having people sit who’ve had appendicitis, etc. - things that would’ve killed them without modern medicine. She could get a majority of the room to sit without effort.
So, I’d be dead without modern medicine - I had appendicitis at around 19 years old.
How 'bout you? Life-saving surgery? Serious Illness? Broke a major bone? Are you here by the grace of modern medicine?
Considering the vaccinations I was given as a wee one I might very well have come in contact with a deadly disease and never known it. The only serious illness I had was minor spinal meningitis when I was 12. Talk about a sucky spring break. I don’t believe that I would have gone to the big pasture in the sky if it was left untreated.
I think chula’s point is valid - living in a developed country as I do, who’s to say whether I could make it in a less developed environment.
Having said that - to play out the question on a more conceptual level - I dunno; I might’ve done okay:
Hernia repair and tonsillectomy, both at a young age - I might’ve been uncomfortable, but don’t know how life-threatening these would’ve been if left untreated
mild cases of chicken pox and the mumps
your usual array of glasses, braces, etc… - again, not life-threatening in my case (although I wouldn’t want to have explained that to myself in junior high as my social life took yet another hit)
allergy shots
No major broken bones, no scary diseases. Who knows? Again, though - if this were really put to the test, I’m sure I would last about a week at most…
Oh, shoot - I just thought of something. I get my annual sinus infection every year - I wouldn’t be surprised if that wouldn’t be sufficient to put me down if very little time…yuck, death by inflamed sinuses…
I may or may not have died from a pneumonia bout or two as a tyke.
If I lived through that, I would definitely be completely blind now, though–medieval technology not quite being up to handling retinal detachment, no matter how many leeched they slapped on.
Never been seriously ill or injured, but my mother and I are both small, narrow-hipped women, so there’s a good chance I would either have not survived my own birth, or died in childbirth by now. Other than that, I think I’d be OK, just severely bucktoothed.
Never hospitalized, no stitches, no broken bones. Have been thrown by my horse and not killed - have been bitten by dogs and not seriously injured…I think I’d still be around at my ripe old age of 41, if I hadn’t been downed by childbirth, of course. I would assume that the probability that I’d be 41 and single and childlessand responsible to make my own living would be somewhat remote back then.
with as many times as I had Bronchitis, Pneumonia and Strept throat as a kid(we’re talking dozens of times here) I’d definately have bought the farm by now.
Aside from the Hydrocephalus I was born with (which prolly would have meant the end of me up until the early part of the 20[sup]th[/sup] Century), I have also had my appendix removed.
