# Without Modern Medical Care, When Would You Have Died? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 10, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989 "2009-03-10T18:37:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/1 "2009-03-10T18:37:45Z")
I probably would have died at 4 from pneumonia. If I’d survived that, I would have died at 13 from acute appendicitis. Yay for modern medicine! ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/2 "2009-03-10T18:43:07Z")
When I was 3, from scarlet fever. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/3 "2009-03-10T18:43:51Z")
I was going to say when I had strep at age 33, but I did have pneumonia at around age 10. That might have done it. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/4 "2009-03-10T18:44:16Z")
Pneumonia. Age 8. ---
**Author:** ![davekhps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a5b964/32.png) [@davekhps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davekhps)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/5 "2009-03-10T18:45:53Z")
I would still be alive, but without antibiotics I’d be deaf in one ear from an ear infection at age 24. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/6 "2009-03-10T18:50:16Z")
Hard to say. I was vaccinated. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/7 "2009-03-10T18:51:17Z")
Deathy from flu/pneumonia/chicken pox/strep nonwithstanding… I’d have been completely deaf from ear infections by the age of 6 and then dead at 13 from pseudotumor cerebri. ---
**Author:** ![Caricci](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/85f322/32.png) [@Caricci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caricci)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/8 "2009-03-10T18:51:34Z")
Acute appendicitis at 8. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/9 "2009-03-10T18:54:59Z")
I was diagnosed with SIDS at 3 months. Yes, yes - the “D” stands for Death in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome; however, apparently that doesn’t always happen. Or I aspirated and SIDS was the most convenient diagnosis. ---
**Author:** ![Palo\_Verde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/65b543/32.png) [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/10 "2009-03-10T19:00:54Z")
The only thing I can thing of is an infection I had shortly after giving birth. It’s the exact thing a lot of women died from when you hear about them ‘dying in childbirth’ But I can’t say if I would really have died, some women pulled through. ---
**Author:** ![Jelly\_Roll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Jelly\_Roll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelly_Roll)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/11 "2009-03-10T19:13:42Z")
Appendicitis/peritonitis at age 16. Cancer at age 29. Uterine hemorrhage while giving birth at age 30. I’m basically living on borrowed time at this point. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/12 "2009-03-10T19:14:46Z")
Graves Disease would’ve gotten me at about 33 or so. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/13 "2009-03-10T19:16:31Z")
Hm. I had a severe bladder infection at 22 that could well have turned into a fatal kidney infection without the wonders of Cipro. Or maybe not. At 27, I would definitely have died in childbirth without the c-section. I would have been one of those who labored for days and then died of exhaustion. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/14 "2009-03-10T19:17:23Z")
Probably deaf from ear infections by a young age, and then I suspect that really horrible bout of pneumonia in my teens might well have killed me - considering how horrible it was **with** modern medicine, I can’t imagine me making it through without. Ow. I managed to forget about the frequent bladder infections. That would not have been a pleasant end. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/15 "2009-03-10T19:28:45Z")
I had quinsy (peritonsillar abscess) when I was about 12, and that very well could have done it. If not that, then for sure in childbirth when I was 35. My son was transverse and couldn’t turn due to my uterine fibroids. I assume he and I would both have died. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/16 "2009-03-10T19:29:30Z")
I would not have survived childhood. 9 at the latest. ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/17 "2009-03-10T19:32:27Z")
No way to be sure. I get a lot of UTI’s, which I suppose might have become bladder- and then kidney-infections. I’ve had a couple of bad sinus infections that might have turned into something or not… Oh, I know! I’ve stepped on rusty nails TWICE. So I might have died of tetanus if I hadn’t been vaccinated. At either 23 or 35. And I had a nasty, puncture from a cat bite that got badly infected when I was probably 28, so thank God for antibiotics, too. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/18 "2009-03-10T19:36:30Z")
Died of malaria at age 2 or at age 15…but then quinine has been around forever. However, my eye doctor did say that in the time before glasses, people like me would have fallen off a cliff. :dubious: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/19 "2009-03-10T19:38:33Z")
I probably would have died at 23 of a kidney infection that started out as a urinary tract infection. It actually had moved into my kidney by the time I went to the doctor for it. (I am scared of doctors, and tend not to go unless I’m really sick or hurting with something that won’t go away on its own) I might have been deaf by then, too, since I had lots of ear infections as a child. My sister and the older of her two daughters would have died in childbirth, when my sister was 29. My brother in law is built like a linebacker, and his daughter inherited his shoulders. After she had her c-section, the doctor looked at the baby and told her “there was no way other than this that you were ever getting that baby out”. Mr. Neville’s middle brother would have died of Type I diabetes in his late teens or early 20s (very late onset). ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/20 "2009-03-10T19:42:47Z")
Probably not yet, unless I happened to die in an epidemic or something. My teeth would be a mess, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989.md?page=2)