# Was survival possible for paraplegics 100+ years ago? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 9, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428 "2016-05-09T19:50:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/1 "2016-05-09T19:50:21Z")
The question is prompted by the paraplegic character on Game of Thrones. The son of a friend became paraplegic four years ago and I have learned a great deal about the difficulties involved in living with half your body cut off from your brain. It’s not easy. But I haven’t been able to satisfactorily learn whether it was possible for paraplegics to survive for any extended period of time prior to the advent of modern medical equipment and knowledge, whether any did. In the fantasy universe of GoT, the paraplegic character’s only issue seems to be walking, when that is really the least of the issues, the first being the process of voiding the bladder and bowels. So, anyone know anything? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/2 "2016-05-09T22:35:30Z")
Well, wheelchairs date back to the late 1500s, so it implies that yes, there were people who were paraplegic more than 100 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/3 "2016-05-09T22:48:58Z")
And crutches are earlier. Remember that graves of handicapped people go back a long way–the cliche of the stoop-shouldered, shambling Neanderthal came from the first skeleton found which was of an elderly individual with crippling arthritis. We find ways to take care of our own. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/4 "2016-05-09T22:49:24Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Well, wheelchairs date back to the late 1500s, so it implies that yes, there were people who were paraplegic more than 100 years ago. People could have problems walking (due to amputations, joint problems, etc.) without being paraplegic. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/5 "2016-05-09T22:49:39Z")
Maybe not fully para- or quadriplegic, but more along the lines of having difficulty walking due to arthritis or polio, or having lost a leg due to injury or infection. Some people have an essentially dead body below the injured dermatome, and other people have full bladder and bowel function, and sexual function is unimpaired in men, and have feeling and movement in their lower body but their muscles are too weak or uncontrolled for them to walk unaided. How long a person would live back then (or in a Third World nation nowadays) would depend on this and many other factors. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/6 "2016-05-09T22:59:11Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > And crutches are earlier. Remember that graves of handicapped people go back a long way–the cliche of the stoop-shouldered, shambling Neanderthal came from the first skeleton found which was of an elderly individual with crippling arthritis. The first Neanderthal skeleton found was not arthritic, but some skeptics claimed that its abnormalities were due to the fact that it belonged to a lost Cossack with rickets. However, some later Neanderthal skeletons were from arthritic or crippled individuals. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/7 "2016-05-09T23:45:16Z")
Thank you, sir! May I have another? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2016, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/8 "2016-05-09T23:46:17Z")
The kind of injuries or illnesses that leave a person a paraplegic with no bowel or bladder function are not the sort of thing someone would survive 100 years ago. However, people were post-polio and other illnesses with paralysis but intact bowel and bladder function since forever. Also, people were bedridden with illnesses in the bible, although apparently had bowel and bladder function. Benjamin Franklin invented a flexible urinary catheter when his brother had bladder stones, sometime in the 1700s. Apparently people used things like reeds for catheters in ancient times, but I can see those causing infections, so not a long term solution. Also, anything organic would breakdown if left in place. The solution for people with impaired bowel function now is “enema,” which has been around for a very long time. So until the catheter or enema caused an infection, those were solutions. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/9 "2016-05-10T04:39:40Z")
The book Ethan Frome was written 100 years ago (and takes place earlier than that) and it features a paraplegic woman, so presumably the author didn’t think it was particularly unusual. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/10 "2016-05-10T21:31:02Z")
“Benjamin Franklin invented a flexible urinary catheter” Now I know who to blame for those awful commercials that run on certain channels all the time! :smack: Anyway, 100 years ago isn’t what it used to be, it’s well into the 20th century now, though certainly we’ve advanced a lot since then it’s not like asking this sort of thing back when 100 years ago was like Civil War era or whatever. Certainly not Game of Thrones “era” (not that a series in fictional setting where seasons can take decades is really an era). ---
**Author:** ![Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_blistering_barnacle/32/3386_2.png) [@Blue\_Blistering\_Barnacle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blue_Blistering_Barnacle)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-survival-possible-for-paraplegics-100-years-ago/754428/11 "2016-05-10T22:43:17Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > The book Ethan Frome was written 100 years ago (and takes place earlier than that) and it features a paraplegic woman, so presumably the author didn’t think it was particularly unusual. Well, that totally ruined that book for me! It was trivial to infer from your post that a love triangle gone wrong leads to a tragic sledding accident and a heavy dose of irony. Now I don’t want to read it any more! 🙂