# 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:** 14\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/121 "2009-03-13T02:50:06Z")
I had the measels when I was around 7 years old, (that really screwed up my eyesight), so if I survived that, I’d have been extremely nearsighted, (unless our local “country doctor” could get me some eyeglasses.) Then, when I was around 9 years old, I had a very serious case of pneumonia (in my case they called it “double pneumonia”), and I had only 1/4 of one lung still functioning, so I guess in the “olden days” I’d have found a job in agriculture helping the flowers grow (pushing-up daisies.) I survived to fly kites another day. ---
**Author:** ![Stauderhorse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@Stauderhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stauderhorse)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/122 "2009-03-13T03:17:32Z")
At the age of two from intussusception, or telescoped intestines. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/123 "2009-03-13T03:33:56Z")
Staph infection at age 5 would have cost me a leg without modern medicine. If it didn’t kill me, which is a bit less likely. At age 46 I had endocarditis (last year) and without a lot of clever modern medicine it is fatal. I’m still recovering. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/124 "2009-03-13T07:41:58Z")
My delivery would have taken place on February 19-20 instead of in Mid-March (that would have been a plus, basically the ObGyn almost killed me… several times). If the mumps hadn’t killed me at age 2, the continuous rounds of tonsillitis at 10 probably would have. Then again, I wouldn’t have been born, as Mom would have died of _pulmonía_ (pneumonia in both lungs) aged 3 (the doctors said it was “just a cold,” Grandma said “I already lost a daughter to a cold like that!” and didn’t stop until she found a doctor who said the polite equivalent of “cold, my ass in winter”). ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/125 "2009-03-13T08:18:07Z")
I suppose measles might’ve had a shot at killing me, but aside from that I don’t think I’ve ever had any potentially life-threatening illnesses. I do have very mild nearsightedness, but without modern optometry I doubt I’d even be aware of it. I suppose a couple of vertically impacted wisdom teeth at 19 would’ve messed up my jaw through infections, but I assume they could be extracted by the local sawbones/barber/dentist. ---
**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 13, 2009, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/126 "2009-03-13T12:44:07Z")
> [@Jeff](#): > > I suppose a couple of vertically impacted wisdom teeth at 19 would’ve messed up my jaw through infections, but I assume they could be extracted by the local sawbones/barber/dentist. Or you might have lost other teeth before your wisdom teeth came in, and then the wisdom teeth would have had room to come in. My dad still has his wisdom teeth at 70. He had a dentist who tended to pull teeth at any sign of trouble, so by the time he got his wisdom teeth, he was missing enough other teeth that there was room for them. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/127 "2009-03-13T15:29:46Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Or you might have lost other teeth before your wisdom teeth came in, and then the wisdom teeth would have had room to come in. My dad still has his wisdom teeth at 70. He had a dentist who tended to pull teeth at any sign of trouble, so by the time he got his wisdom teeth, he was missing enough other teeth that there was room for them. The problem with mine wasn’t a lack of room, they just didn’t erupt properly and were still partly covered by the gums, which causes a serious infection risk. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/128 "2009-03-13T16:46:58Z")
Another would-be burst appendix victim here. This would have been in 1967 at the tender age of 7. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Woodhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@Miss\_Woodhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Woodhouse)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/129 "2009-03-13T18:36:22Z")
I never would have been born. My mother’s body didn’t want to go into labor with me. I was born via C-section 6 weeks late. Without the c-section I would have died before I was born. Then there was the blood poisoning from a rusty nail at age 8. The breach baby at 21 followed by a uterine infection. But that’s ok because the baby’s father would have already died from hepatitis at age 17. 😉 The UTIs and bladder infections might have carried me off since then, of course. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/130 "2009-03-13T22:19:13Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > 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. It might just be that Henry didn’t give her enough chances. My mother had one child, lost one to miscarriage, had another, lost two, and was told she’d never carry to term again. Guess what? I’m her third, and I have a younger brother. Tough or lucky, my mom. (I’d vote lucky. After all, she had me. :)) On the other hand, without modern medicine, one of those miscarriages probably would have killed her. Without transfusion she just would have bled to death. So, no me that way. ---
**Author:** ![alexandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@alexandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alexandra)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/131 "2009-03-14T01:21:52Z")
> [@Omega\_Glory](#): > > I was born after an emergency C-section, so I probably would never have gotten started. Ditto. Most likely my mum would have died too and my brother would never have been born. Weird. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2009, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/132 "2009-03-14T01:58:21Z")
I’d probably have gone deaf and/or stark raving mad from my teens onwards from tooth to sinus to ear infections. I get those all the time, and they hurt like a motherfucker. I’d also probably limp, since I got run over when I was in high school, broke my pelvis in two places which required cruel & unusual surgery, and be quasi-blind from early onset myopia. Tetanus would also have been a strong contender - I go everywhere barefoot when I can get away with it, and stepped on an impressive quantity of rusty nails, tent pegs, wood splinters, broken glass etc… over the years. So, blind, limping and crazy… probably riddled with smallpox too from all the unsafe nookies with ladies of ill repute… I’d have made a pretty decent Habsburg, all things considered 😉 ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2009, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/133 "2009-03-14T15:25:56Z")
I was born a month premature, so that could have been it. On the other hand, they didn’t give me an incubator or anything (I weighed too much to count as a preemie) and just sent me on home. I was born with a crooked neck and an inguinal hernia. I guess neither would have killed me, but I’m happy to be rid of both. I think without modern sanitation or antibiotics I would have copped it from some kind of infectious disease, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2009, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989/134 "2009-03-14T17:14:44Z")
Very possibly I would have died from some infectious disease between infancy and young childhood - diptheria, cholera, smallpox and so on. Even less scary sounding diseases like measles could have done me in (as recently as 2000, measles was killing 750,000 a year around the world. That number has been cut to 200,000 or so thanks to stepped up vaccination campaigns). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-modern-medical-care-when-would-you-have-died/488989.md?page=6)