Dead: three months premature. They had to put me in the incubator and give me constant care during those months, and even then they gave me up for dead. But I came back at the last moment.
I’ ve already recounted how I was supposed to be a stillbirth. This was in 1972. 200 years ago, I would have been dead.
And maybe 20 years ago, I would quite probably have been dying of AIDS.
I would have shuffled off this mortal coil at age 11. Autoimmune disease: immune thrombocytopenia purpura: immune system got bored and decided it was open season on my platelets. I’da bled to death with one good cut.
100 years ago: same result
50 years ago: no idea, major surgery required
11 years ago: IVs for eight years and I’m good.
Gooooooood modern medicine. Have a biscuit.
Inhaled meconium at birth, didn’t breathe the first 2 minutes of my life. NICU for 3 weeks. I definitely would have died and Mom would have too.
If my some miracle I made it, the salmonella I had at age 3 would have done it.
Premature (about a month), C-Section, chronic tonsilitis and pneumonia/bronchitis through childhood, pretty surely a deader.
Scarlet fever at age four. That could have done it. Two concussions - but those could have worked out if no one tried to treat them.
Gallstones, but those don’t kill you. Migraines, but they never did find a drug that worked for that. Used low doses of caffeine until I outgrew them.
But I’m Rh negative, so if I had my standard 12 to 18 children, odds are a bunch of them would have been stillborn or died soon after birth.
And I definitely wouldn’t have many teeth left. I have a tendency to cavities and bruxism and have ground the little beggars to pieces. My dentist loves me. (I hypothesize that wisdom teeth are meant to be spares - I sure would have needed them.)
Don’t want to think about dealing with the arthritis without vioxx. In fact, I think the vioxx finished off the last of the headaches.
So possibly dead and definitely miserable.
I don’t think I would of died yet, but within the next 5-6 years of my life, porbablly. Impacted cainine that traveled into my sinues. Had I not gotten it removed, it would of eventually gotten infected. 200 years ago, without x-rays I doubt they would of even found where it was. They probablly would have written some kind of “unidentified infection” on my death certificate.
I had whooping cough 2 years ago, that used to kill kids all the time but a good ammount survived. I probablly would of survived- (I was immunized too, I fall into the 2 percent of cases that get it anyways…)
I don’t think I would of died yet, but within the next 5-6 years of my life, probablly. Impacted cainine that traveled into my sinues. Had I not gotten it removed, it would of eventually gotten infected. 200 years ago, without x-rays I doubt they would of even found where it was. They probablly would have written some kind of “unidentified infection” on my death certificate.
Appendicitis at 15.
If I had survived that, torn cervix during birth of child no.1…needing transfusions till haemorraging stopped.
If I had survived that, there was no way child no 4 was going to fit his big head down the birth canal… leading to an emergency C section at age 41, an age that any respectable hag of the early 18th century would probably have been dead anyway, or at least past childbearing.
Dead at 7 from scarlet Fever.
Deaf in at least one ear from chronic ear infections.
Nearly blind from lack of glasses. We’re talking I’d be picking berries by feel.
Most likely dead by 15 from chronic bronchitis and strep throat that had a habit of getting into my blood. Nearly constant tonsilitis to the point that I had a hard time eating and breathing could be difficult.
If not then, I’d certainly be dead from the two abcessed teeth that I had when I was 26. Terrible, terrible stuff.
I’ve never had any serious illness and would probably have lived unless some farmer had shot me because of his daughter. I did have a broken leg but 200 years ago I likely wouldn’t have been at that summer camp. I’d even go so far as to say 2000 years ago I’d probably have lived. Heck, maybe 20,000 years ago I could have been king.
I’d definitely be dead.
200 years ago, they didn’t have tampons which means I’d probably get stuck wearing some rag between my legs. Fuck, I’d kill myself.
Tibs.
I think a lot of the people yo believe they’d’ve died because of some infection or another forget that our body is made to be more or less self-healing. Abcessed teeth, infected wounds, and sinuses usually run their course when your body has a chance to work on it. Of course, there were also a lot more teeth pulled and gangrenous limbs amputated way back when. An infection doesn’t usually kill, and when you heal your body is stronger. I’ve been about 30 years without an anti-biotic and during a vaccine study done by the NIH, I had a stronger immune response to the vaccine than anyone else in the study throughout the country. You may be in pain, you might be sick, but your body would heal from most things. Many people did live to old age 200 years ago.
I am surprised to see how many cases of appendicitis there’ve been. I don’t know anyone (that I know of) that has had a ruptured appendix.
StG
Since I’m already “hopelessly crippled” :roll eyes: as a result of Spina Bifida meningemyelocele, I suspect that 200 years ago, I’d have been a newborn mortality statistic.
I’m pretty healthy, no broken bones or diseases. I’m terribly near-sighted however. I don’t have any cites but surely there were eyeglasses back in 1802?
200 years ago? I would’ve been dead 20 years ago. I was severely burned a few years ago, 45% of my body, 2nd and 3rd degree. The paramedics were on scene within minutes, thanks to quick thinking bystanders, and ten minutes later I and the other burn victims were at the hospital, a level one trauma center. With that severity of burn, medical personell need to start working on you within an hour, otherwise, shock takes over, and you’re done.
$200,000 worth of surgery and therapy, and a month an half hospitalization, and I was on my way home. In the '70’s, by contrast, the techniques for skin grafting, anesthetization, infection prevention, and critical care were not advanced enough to save me or the other victims.
Of course, I was lucky enough (ha ha) to get burned in a city with fully functioning, top flight public services and some of the best medical care in the world. Excellent paramedics, brilliant surgeons, super duper nurses. In an isolated rural area, or a blighted big city with failing, overloaded public services, I probably would be dead before anyone could get to me.
I had hepatitus when I was 10 (1983) that nearly killed me then and probably would have 200 years ago. I probably wouldnt have gotten in 200 years ago though, it was guessed that I got it from eating shellfish. Other than that and a bit of irritable bowel, I’ve been pretty healthy.
dead0man
Hmm… C-section. Oh yeah. Okay then, assuming C-section is a bad thing 200 years ago, I guess that yellowjacket when I was 9 would have been very disappointed to find out that I hadn’t made it past -2 weeks. shrug
Absolutely. Benjamin Franklin is credited with the invention of bifocals, but eyeglasses were around for hundreds of years before that. But I suspect that they were rarely available for anyone but the aristocracy until relatively recent times.
Some issues with this whole idea, that I’ve had with others with the “born in a differnt era” fantasy…
1- If you were born of that era, the odds are good you would think, and believe, of that era. So all our pagans (myself included) would probably have been good church-going christians. Same with our ethic types who feel they would have been hung, etc. Maybe, but the odds are against it.
2- I see now that others have gone on about sicknesses not being fatal… never mind.
That being said, I would be dead. Rather a lot of problems with breathing when younger. Plus a pretty severe hernia problem at age 2.
However, other than bronchitus, I’ve never had the childhood illnesses. Who knows?