Pyloric Stenosis a few weeks after birth. Less than one hundred years ago an infant with the condition would die of extreme dehydration and cardiovascular failure, spending much of his (predominantly a male disorder) short life projectile vomiting. Now it’s fixed with a relatively simple surgery and the mortality rate is extremely low.
No serious illnesses or broken bones so far. The only thing which might have killed me was giving birth to my twins, but as I had them naturally and with only gas and air I’m going to be optimistic and say I’d still be alive.
Dead baby crawling. Born 3 months premature.
Dead, dead, dead.
Major bladder infection, gotten rid of only by Cipro–would have turned into a kidney infection and carried me off. If that hadn’t done it, BabyG was very large and sunny-side-up; I would have been one of those that labored for a week and then died of exhaustion. She never even came close to descending.
Pneumonia or some other severe respiratory problem around age two. Stopped breathing and was rushed to the emergency room. Yep, modern medicine’s great.
My youngest daughter had a urinary tract infection when she was several weeks old. Several days in the hospital, lots of antibiotics, and she recovered nicely. Pre-antibiotics, she’d have been another infant death.
(OK, so that wasn’t me directly. But I’m not all that sure I’d have survived losing her anyway.)
The blood leaking from the cavernous malformation in my brain would likely have done me in if not for brain surgery.
Well, I suffered a life-threatening infection after my vasectomy operation, but of course that procedure wouldn’t have been available back then, so maybe I’d be OK.
She’s dead, Jim. Take her stuff.
My appendix exploded when I was 13, in addition to being painfully nearsighted, and various childhood infections including strep and chicken pox.
I play in the SCA, but I’m real happy to come home and take a hot soapy shower on Sunday. Let’s not forget modern cleanliness probably saved as many lives as modern medicine up through 20th century.
Gestational diabetes, and then an emergency C-section caused by the cord wrapped 3x around the baby’s neck. 200 years ago? Both of us dead as donuts.
Also, speaking for Whatsit Jr. here, when he was a month old he contracted RSV, which led to bacterial pneumonia, and that DEFINITELY would have killed him 200 years ago. Maybe even 50 years ago.
Persistent and chronic pneumothorax.
200 years ago – hell, fifty years ago – I’m a corpse several times over.
At the age of 32, I have never had:
pneumonia
measles
mumps
chicken pox
tonsillitis
any serious congenital illness
I suppose that 200 years ago, infantile paralysis (polio) would have been a danger without the Salk vaccine, but we can’t take that as a given.
So I’d probably have been OK, but I would be a cripple: I broke my leg four years ago and had to have orthopedic surgery. It’s possible that it could have been partially repaired with a splint or plaster cast, but I’d never have fully regained use of my leg without modern medicine.
My mother’s side came to the Pacific Northwest in the early 1800’s. My father’s side came over on the Mayflower. 3 of my 4 grandparents lived into their mid 80’s. I have never had any kind of disease or serious illness. At 45 I still have my tonsils and appendix. I would be just as alive in 1802 as 2002. Guess you good say I come from good pioneer stock.
I’d never have been born - my mom is a Type I diabetic, and if not for insulin treatment, she’d have died before she turned 20 years old, twelve years before I was born.
On my own merit, I’d probably still be here, albeit totally useless. I’m severely nearsighted, and I doubt any olden time spectacles could have helped me to the point where I’d be able to actually do anything. Of course, 200 years ago, I probably wouldn’t read as much as I do now, and my vision might be better. (Not by much, though, as it seems I am genetically predisposed to near-blindness.)
I’d have been stillborn, most likely. Hell, I nearly was even in the high tech times of 1977.
Another dead one here. I probably would have died of “child bed fever” after the birth of my first child.
And if that hadn’t done me in, the second one definitely would have. Emergency C-Section, 6 weeks early, placenta previa, massive blood loss and infection.
Thank God for antibiotics!
Embarrassingly, I would have been done in by a bee that stung me when I was 9.
Another cord-around-the-neck (2x) baby here. I’d have died and taken my mother with me.
I LIVE!
Not sure about illness, although I did have a serious bronchial infection when I was in the fifth grade that eventually landed me in the hospital for treatment.
My only thought is that if this were 1802, I would not be able to speak, read, or write. I was born severely-to-profoundly deaf. ASL hasn’t been invented yet. Hearing aids that are practical for my type of hearing loss are more than a century and a half away. My life would have been totally, unimaginably different.
It’s a thought that’s occurred to me before.