# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/21 "2009-03-10T19:53:58Z")
When I was 22, I had a really bad case of strep throat. When I finally went to the doctor, he told me, “2 more days and you would have suffocated yourself.” ---
**Author:** ![Koldanar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@Koldanar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koldanar)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/22 "2009-03-10T19:59:37Z")
Probably the day I was born…leg was caught in my mother’s ribcage, and the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck 🙂 ---
**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, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/23 "2009-03-10T20:00:34Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > However, my eye doctor did say that in the time before glasses, people like me would have fallen off a cliff. :dubious: 😉 Yeah, with my eyesight I kind of wonder whether I ever would have gotten married at all. Probably I would have spent my days tripping in the garden, walking right into beehives, and generally being a burden on society. Then, of course, the infections and childbirth couldn’t have carried me off… ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/24 "2009-03-10T20:02:42Z")
I was vaccinated against most of the nasty stuff, so we’ll never know what I might have gotten. And who knows whether those flu strains would have been bad enough to kill me. Chicken pox at age 5 might have done it. Did tonsillitis used to kill people? If so, age 6. My right arm would have been useless after age 7. IF I would have picked up tetanus from that nail that went all the way through my foot, age 8. If I survived all that, the cancer at age 44 would have definitely killed me. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/25 "2009-03-10T20:04:47Z")
What about wearing glasses? I have terrible eyesight. If I’d lived in the days before eyeglasses, I’d have wandered off a cliff, FO SHO. Okay, granted, blind people survived. But I’m too sighted to get the sixth sense and too bad at seeing to be just plain competent. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/26 "2009-03-10T20:04:49Z")
I had a severe infection originating from a nasty cut on my ankle when I was four or five. In the hospital for several days, so that was probably bad enough to kill me. I also had cat scratch fever at 11, requiring surgery to remove an infected lymph node and a couple rounds of antibiotics. At 21, I got pneumonia, though not hospital stay required, just some pills. So yeah…one of those might have had a good chance of killing me. ---
**Author:** ![Stillsmiling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Stillsmiling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stillsmiling)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/27 "2009-03-10T20:06:56Z")
February 22, 2008 at the age of 39 from cardiac arrest. A deputy defibrillated me and I now have an implanted defibrillator. ---
**Author:** ![Alastair\_Moonsong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@Alastair\_Moonsong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alastair_Moonsong)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/28 "2009-03-10T20:08:35Z")
18 Months, from Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome, variant unknown (some similarities to Minimal Change Disease but not enough to enable a diagnosis). ---
**Author:** ![Zulema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/db5fbb/32.png) [@Zulema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zulema)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/29 "2009-03-10T20:08:52Z")
I probably wouldn’t have been born or died at birth. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/30 "2009-03-10T20:16:24Z")
Even with vaccinations and modern hygiene, I would have been dead at 14 from acute appendicitis/peritonitis. If by some miracle I had survived that, any of the several respiratory infections I had when I was poor and uninsured might have killed me in my early 20’s. Or the bladder infection I had when I was 27 might have killed me. Or the super nasty sinus infection I had two years ago, I was about ready to kill myself over that one. Very painful. ---
**Author:** ![badbadrubberpiggy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/57b2e6/32.png) [@badbadrubberpiggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/badbadrubberpiggy)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/31 "2009-03-10T20:17:27Z")
How fatal is strep throat, without antibiotics? I got that many times as a kid, though mostly not severe cases. I think that’s it, assuming I never got anything I’ve been vaccinated for. I broke a collar bone when I was 8, but that didn’t even have to be set, so that certainly wouldn’t have killed me. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/32 "2009-03-10T20:23:18Z")
A good chunk of people would have died from strep. If they survived strep, their lifespan would have been shortened by the rheumatic fever that follows, as it would have attacked parts such as the heart valves. Just so many wildcards to figure out. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/33 "2009-03-10T20:24:35Z")
October 15, 1991 at the age of 21. In a car crash. Actually, I never would have existed since my dad would have died from polio at the age of 7. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/34 "2009-03-10T20:25:35Z")
Well, I was born nearly two months early, back in 1970. I don’t know where in the timeline of medical history things like incubators began existing, or the right level of knowledge/care for pre-term babies, but I had an identical twin brother at birth who didn’t survive beyond a few hours… So clearly I was a borderline case. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/35 "2009-03-10T20:29:22Z")
I don’t think I’d be dead, but without glasses or contacts I’d be begging for alms in the street. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/36 "2009-03-10T20:37:54Z")
Before my first birthday. Hydrocephalus. ---
**Author:** ![Neeps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a183cd/32.png) [@Neeps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neeps)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/37 "2009-03-10T20:38:39Z")
By the age of about 8 months, from a malignant liver tumour (hepatoblastoma). Thank god for modern medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/38 "2009-03-10T20:42:10Z")
At (premature) birth. If not then, probably one of the numerous times I had strep as a child/teenager, or the 2 times I’ve had pneumonia. Or cancer (34). Or something I picked up fron not being vaccinated. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/39 "2009-03-10T20:43:21Z")
I was kept in the hospital after being born for pneumonia, so I’m guessing I would have lived about a week. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/40 "2009-03-10T20:43:43Z")
I was born after an emergency C-section, so I probably would never have gotten started. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989.md?page=3)