# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/101 "2009-03-11T16:30:26Z")
When I was 9 I developed Ileus. It’s a condition in which your entire digestive system becomes impacted and stops working. I had waste and food matter from my rectum to my esophagus. (WAY TMI FOLLOWS) I had evacuation treatments in the form of 3 a day enemas and a stomach pump for 9 days along with massive doses of IV antibiotics. Once everything got cleared out, my system restarted. The doctors were quite surprised that I lived. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/102 "2009-03-11T16:52:19Z")
Ectopic pregnancy at 21 would have done me in. ---
**Author:** ![mamakat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@mamakat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mamakat)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/103 "2009-03-11T16:59:36Z")
I had the measles in high school. I guess that could have killed me. Then with my first child, the dr. told me there was no way she could have come out beside c-section. With my second child, same story, but I almost bled to death as well. Then the 2 pulminary embolisms and the subsequent heart monitoring, blood thinners, lovenox shots…that probably kept me alive too! ---
**Author:** ![caveman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caveman/32/7242_2.png) [@caveman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caveman)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/104 "2009-03-11T17:41:49Z")
I was in an incubator for a day after I was born, so probably about then. If I had pulled through somehow (via the clever application of blankets or some such), then I’d be fine for some time. I never even got Chicken Pox. My brain tumor would still be causing occasional focal seizures, but I could cope. Oddly enough, if there were medicine advanced enough to locate it, anesthetize me, and remove it, I’d still have bit it 3 months ago without the additional technology to treat my allergy to the anesthesia. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/105 "2009-03-11T17:44:58Z")
Whooping cough when a tiny wee baby. Type 1 Diabetes at 19. Pneumonia at 23. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/106 "2009-03-11T17:47:26Z")
Yes. From an infected lion bite. Or maybe I’d just lose a leg. Either way, _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/107 "2009-03-11T17:48:10Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > My sister might have been stillborn before modern medicine. My mom is Rh-negative and my sister and I are Rh-positive. I know it was once common for a woman like my mom to be able to have only one healthy child. Historians speculate that’s what may have been the problem with Anne Boleyn. She gave birth to Elizabeth I and then couldn’t carry a pregnancy to term again. ---
**Author:** ![MissIntent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/97f17d/32.png) [@MissIntent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissIntent)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/108 "2009-03-11T17:49:11Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Yes. From an infected lion bite. > > Or maybe I’d just lose a leg. Either way, _shudder_ Wait wait wait… Lion bite? There has to be a story here, did I already miss a thread on it? ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/109 "2009-03-11T18:53:21Z")
I was born in the third world, so very early on I assume (as in pretty quickly after birth). For instance, my grandfather was a smallpox survivor. My grandfather!!! I was vaccinated for smallpox because I was born right before WHO lifted the recommendations for said country. The whole anti-vax thing in the US just blows my mind. I was pumped full of them, at a very early age, on account of where I was born. As far as I’m concerned, the vaccines are among the reasons I made it past infancy. And most likely I was jabbed with the thimerosal versions :p. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/110 "2009-03-11T19:19:28Z")
> [@MissIntent](#): > > Wait wait wait… Lion bite? > > There has to be a story here, did I already miss a thread on it? I don’t think so - a bunch of us have been encouraging him to tell it, but so far nothing beyond “lion bite”. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/111 "2009-03-11T19:33:35Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I don’t think so - a bunch of us have been encouraging him to tell it, but so far nothing beyond “lion bite”. She’s told it somewhere because I remember a picture of her ravaged clothing. Oh, [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10791681&postcount=11). ---
**Author:** ![phall0106](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/phall0106/32/5934_2.png) [@phall0106](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phall0106)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/112 "2009-03-11T20:03:49Z")
Aside from anything I was immunized against in early childhood, I would have probably died from severe tonsilitis at around 4 or 5. Those suckers were so swollen I couldn’t eat and if they’d kept going, may have suffocated me eventually, or I could have died from a massive infection. Childbirth would have gotten me (maybe) with Hallboy (C-Section). Absolutely I would have died from internal bleeding two years ago when they found everything wonky during a CT scan. ---
**Author:** ![nicole1912](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@nicole1912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicole1912)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/113 "2009-03-11T21:34:44Z")
I wouldn’t have survived birth - I was born at 24 weeks gestation, so no hope for me prior to modern medicine… Were that not the case? Probably I’d still be fine - I’ve not had much wrong with me after that, though the gallstones would have been a bitch to live with, rather than have out. Yeah, possibly dead at 22 of gallstones. Isn’t modern medicine nice? ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/114 "2009-03-12T04:28:35Z")
I wouldn’t have been born. My mother’s life was saved by penicillin when she was a child. Without her, there’s no me. But even that aside, I’ve survived appendicitis, measles, mumps and a couple of kidney stone that, even if they hadn’t been fatal, would have left me pleading for death. ---
**Author:** ![Euryphaessa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Euryphaessa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euryphaessa)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/115 "2009-03-12T04:34:10Z")
'Nother “deaf in childhood from ear infections” over here. Also, I had a combination kidney/bladder infection that was pretty bad. Other than that, I can’t think of anything life-threatening. My mom was born with a heart problem and had it operated on when she was about 5, but I don’t know if it was potentially fatal or if it was a quality of life issue. I don’t think my dad or my brother have ever had anything serious to contend with. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/116 "2009-03-12T06:08:21Z")
1951, , repeat 1970, repeat 1996. One of these days, one of them is going to stick 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/117 "2009-03-12T06:12:38Z")
Age 18, from infectious mononucleosis/hepatitis with liver damage, and tonsillitis, and a fungal infection in the back of my throat. Gaah! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/118 "2009-03-12T15:46:07Z")
Presuming my shitty eyesight didn’t lead me off a waterfall or into the jaws of a crocodile or something, as mentioned, and allowing that completely routine problems like strep throat would have been much more complicated until the advent of antibiotics, I absolutely certainly would have been dead at some point before my twentieth birthday, as shortly after my eighteenth I suffered an onslaught of repeated lung collapses, culminating in an ambulance ride and emergency ten-hour surgery to relieve the tension pneumothorax that was crushing my heart. ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2009, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/119 "2009-03-12T16:03:29Z")
I’d never have been born- was an emergency c-section for foetal bradycardia with CPD- mum’s pelvis and my head were not ever going to be friends-I got stuck and my heart rate dropped dangerously low. Apart from that I’d probably have died from dehydration or sepsis at some point… A febrile convulsion at 3 that was treated with IV fluids and antibiotics or the gastro-enteritis at 6 that was treated with IV fluids, or the hyperemesis that was treated with IV fluids and anti-emetics 8 weeks ago…any of them, if they’d gone on long enough, could have killed me. ---
**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/120 "2009-03-13T02:14:26Z")
10 years old, via cancer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989.md?page=7)