FYI, we just did this a few months ago.
I was born via C-section because the umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck. So… yeah. Other than that, I would’ve been fine, I imagine. No tellin how much antibiotics have helped though.
Nope. I would have died at birth – if I’d made it out of the womb alive.
I’d be half blind with a twisted leg. If anybody had been willing to marry (or fornicate) with me, I’d probably be childless anyway. Maybe the borderline ovarian lesion I developed in my 30s would have blossomed into a malignancy that I’d have died miserably of.
That’s without speculating as to whether I would have contracted smallpox or any of the other nasty diseases that modern vaccinations prevented.
So, yeah, I’m wholeheartedly in favor of modern medicine.
I’ve never injured myself any more than spraining an ankle, and never had a disease worse than the flu. Without modern sanitation, of course, I might have died of something, but medicine itself hasn’t been all that important. Now, I’m on several prescriptions, but if I went off them, I’d be fine (though I might die sooner – I have to control my blood pressure, but if I wasn’t taking anything, I’d probably still be a long way from it catching up to me).
If I hadn’t died because of my diabetes, I’d have died when my foot went septic at the beginning of the year. I almost did as it is…we were told that, judging from my blood chemistry when I got to the ER, if I had waited another hour or two I’d have been dead. Quick action and REALLY GOOD antibiotics (and amputation in a sterile OR) saved my life.
August 21 to be exact (here is my answer), although it wasn’t actually a poll, just a post-your-response thread (for this poll, it would most likely be “alive with some minor issues”).
Also, when people talk about dying from high blood pressure, diabetes and stuff like that, if you lived in the Dark Ages, it is likely that those diseases would be of little concern, because they are related to modern lifestyles (yes, I know about type 1 diabetes, but most cases are type 2 and related to obesity and diet (type 2 diabetics, which don’t necessarily need insulin, back then might have even realized that eating certain foods made them feel sick), plus I would imagine that there were less type 1 diabetics back then because many of them died before they could reproduce and pass on their genes; thus, modern medical technology is making us sicker in a sense).
Aneurysm at the base of the skull just a few years back.
W/o bracing my scoliosis would have completely deformed my spine and rib cage, probably crushing my lungs. W/ bracing the curves of my spine are in the mid 40 degrees.
I don’t know. The only major issue I’ve had is an post-childbirth infection. Now those sure killed lot of women, but many also survived. That’s the only thing I can think of that might have killed me.
I share this because I just learned it and found it interesting, not to diminish your childhood maladies: scarlet fever is just strep throat with a rash. You can only get scarlet fever if you have had strep throat before, as the rash is the result of an immune reaction to a toxin produced by the bacteria.
love
yams!!
I was born via C-section because I was breech. Unsure if they would have been able to coax me out of there. Other than that I’ve been pretty lucky, injury- and illness-wise (knock on wood).
Alive and well.
Only hospitalizations were for observation after accidents. No life saving measures needed. All broken bones have been non-displaced and healed correctly without medical intervention including a fractured C7 vertebra. Measles, flu, chicken pox, etc. all passed without medical intervention.
I could hardly have had less modern medical treatment if I had been born a Christian Scientist. Haha
I had to be induced, so I’d possibly have been stillborn due to sudden placenta failure after 40 weeks, but possibly my mum might’ve gone into labour naturally the next day, who knows!
So I’ve voted “dead later!”, thanks to various bouts of whooping cough, scarlet fever, pneumonia, ectopic pregnancy, infected cuts, blah blah.
I’d be dead, no question. If the blood poisoning at age 12 didn’t kill me, the Type 1 Diabetes at age 38 would have. I still feel quite humbled when I realize that all that’s between me and death are these little vials of insulin. It’s really freaky when one of your flippin’ organs just decides to stop working.
me - now 56 - dead at 50 (ruptured appendix)
wife - now 55 - dead at 40 (Addison’s disease, appendix) if not dead at 25 from birth of our daughter (septicemia)
daughter - now 30 - dead at 28 - appendix
older son - now 27 - dead at 9 - Type 1 diabetes
younger son - now 18, nothing obvious that would have killed him.
So 1 out of 5 likely to have survived this long.
Had 3 kidney stones 2 years ago.
One was stuck in my ureter and had to be surgically removed, the other two were broken up using shock wave lithotripsy.
Probably would be dead now from infection or would have happily topped myself rather than endure the pain any longer.
What’s “modern medicine” mean in the year 2012? Since 2000? 1950? 1900? (Is the OP’s “Dark Age Serf” literally living in 13th Century Europe?)
As time marches on the circumstances of my birth slips further from being “modern” medicine, but it was fairly cutting edge 40 years ago: I would have died at childbirth, as I was born 2 months prematurely, weighed barely more than 3 lbs. (and dropped to just under 3 lbs. at one point), and spent the first 4 weeks or so of my life intubated in a sterile incubator with heat lamps.
According to this article, that kind of NICU setup was first established at hospitals in the 1950s. But individual clinics and doctors evidently had succeeded in using “human incubators” (like used with chickens) even earlier to successfully raise premature babies as small as 1 lb. 6 oz., with cites in that article going back to 1860 and 1889. By the turn of the 20th Century, the technology was known but rare/expensive - most commonly offset by using the babies as exhibits in a sideshow attraction.
Just went back and read this. I feel your pain man, and you have my deepest sympathies :mad:
Wow, I’m just gonna sit over here in the corner and feel extremely fortunate, ok?
I’d still be alive. I’ve never needed urgent medical care. Never been operated on, hospitalized, stiched up, or broken a bone.
Of course now that I’ve written this…can’t find enough wood to knock on.