# Would you still be alive without modern medical technology? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234 "2012-08-22T01:08:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/61 "2012-08-22T17:32:40Z")
Probably not. My mom was a twin, and a preemie, born in 1937. She and her sister were the inaugural guests in the hospital’s new incubator unit. If not for that machine, I might well have never been born. And that’s not even counting the pneumonia and multiple severe strep infections I had as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/62 "2012-08-22T17:38:50Z")
Aneurysm at the base of the skull a few years back, so…no, absolutely not. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/63 "2012-08-22T17:58:09Z")
Hard to tell – I had a stage 0 borderline ovarian lesion some decades back. If that had developed into a real growing cancer it would probably have killed me rather unpleasantly by now. My daughter and granddaughter might well have not made it had the birth not been promptly induced when pre-eclampsia developed. As it was la bambina was in the NICU for a few days. ETA: Of course had my daughter’s appendix burst instead of being surgically removed when she was a child, the above would be irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/64 "2012-08-22T18:24:28Z")
I had a pyloric stenosis as a baby. Without modern medicine there is something like a 50% chance I wouldn’t have made it past a few months. A few infections later in life might have taken me as well. ---
**Author:** ![foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9a140/32.png) [@foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolscap)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/65 "2012-08-22T18:26:09Z")
I did die, about six years ago But, I didn’t stay that way.🙂 I had a whole room full of people working on me, and, then a month to recover from that. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/66 "2012-08-22T18:49:52Z")
Yeah, sure, I’d still be alive. Had the usual childhood diseases and survived with little intervention. Never had a broken bone, but I have went for treatment of a few bad cuts and abrasions. I am very resistant to infection. It has been several years since I was sick. No allergies and don’t usually get the common cold even though others around me do. Had the real flu with the high temperature and knocked me down into bed, about 10 years ago. The worst thing I ever had was an ear infection that gave me vertigo. That took some time to get over. I’m 56 and have no plans to see a doctor again until some issue comes up. I am not on any medications. They say that genes matter most. And if so, I have chosen my grandparents well, all four lived into thier '90s. Mom is still alive and clear headed at 86. Dad’s lungs gave out to smoking. Both sides of the family are long lived, and that matters more than medicine. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/67 "2012-08-22T20:49:03Z")
unsure. Appendix removal, antibiotic courses for pneumonia x2. Pretty much for sure I’d be blind from detached retinas. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/68 "2012-08-22T20:55:13Z")
I’d be alive, although I’m sure the ridiculously long time I was laid up due to infectious mononucleosis would have been longer. Never had significant health problems other than that and never broken anything. I don’t know if I’d live another 30 years though, because it’s hard to tell whether the health problems in my older family members are due more to lifestyle or just mediocre genes. Even with modern medicine, I might not be very healthy after 60. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/69 "2012-08-22T21:01:03Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Nope. Hydrocephalic as a baby. Same here. My spinal column was also exposed at birth. ---
**Author:** ![sohvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@sohvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sohvan)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/70 "2012-08-22T21:15:45Z")
I had a pretty bad whooping cough as an infant, and spent months in a hospital. I may have survived it without modern medicine, but the chances would have been far worse. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/71 "2012-08-22T21:47:50Z")
I’d have some interesting scars. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/72 "2012-08-22T21:53:53Z")
Probably dead in that I am incredibly short sighted, so I would have walked in front of a horse or something. And various small things with antibiotics might have done me in too. Otara ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/73 "2012-08-22T22:18:42Z")
Probably still be alive. All the major medical messing I’ve had were diagnostic procedures far more unpleasant than the presenting symptoms and ruled out the bad things they were looking for. I’d probably have more kids, thank you modern medicine for birth control and tubal ligations. I’d probably have survived those extra births though, all my births were unmedicated and quickly recovered from and I come from women who easily had many many children. ---
**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:** [August 22, 2012, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/74 "2012-08-22T22:43:30Z")
I’m another in the “would have died in childbirth” category. My son was transverse and sorta pinned in place by two large fibroids. There was no way he was going to get out by the normal route. So he probably wouldn’t have made it either. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/75 "2012-08-22T23:07:27Z")
Not only me (chronic illness controlled by medication developed in 20th century) but also my mother (saved by antibiotic) would have died in childhood. When I was in elementary school, the teacher asked if any of us would have liked to live in the 1700’s. She was disappointed when we all said no. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/76 "2012-08-23T03:25:57Z")
And let’s not forget vaccines. Who knows what I would have contracted and died from had it not been for those, naysayers to the contrary. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/77 "2012-08-23T04:15:09Z")
My myopia’s bad enough that I’m sure I would have walked into a well, eventually. My psoriasis is bad enough that I probably would have been an outcast, for sure. So, while physically fairly sound, and ridiculously healthy otherwise, my looks alone would have put me in the position of having to fend for myself, which my eyesight probably wouldn’t have allowed me to do. So…I’d probably have died young. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/78 "2012-08-23T04:38:18Z")
Assuming I would not have had the near fatal motorcycle accident (as they wouldn’t have been invented yet), I am in a wheelchair as a result of Multiple Sclerosis. I would be lucky to be a ward of the state and wheeled out into the sunshine once a month in a wicker bath chair. No thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/79 "2012-08-23T04:39:42Z")
Nope. Hodgkin’s Disease. And thanks to this thread I just realized my six-year remission anniversary is just a couple weeks away. Huh. ---
**Author:** ![MaltLiquor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@MaltLiquor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaltLiquor)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2012, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234/80 "2012-08-23T04:56:14Z")
I didn’t even think about eyesight, though many have brought it up. I would guess I would have been a bit more careful as a child if I didn’t have glasses. I did play the “lets’s shoot an arrow as straight as we can into the sky and see if we can dodge it” game. Yes, it is a thing, I have met many people that had the same type of game. I think I would still be alive without corrective lenses, but I think my bloodline would have withered out a couple generation ago if they didn’t exist. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-still-be-alive-without-modern-medical-technology/632234.md?page=5)