If you'd lived 200 years ago, would you still be alive?

[Surlethe]

Here's the name of the game. Take your medical history and assume it happened 200 years ago. So, for example, if you were in a car crash that required a three-day ICU stay, you'd take the injuries sustained in the wreck (say, fractured spine, heavy internal hemorrhage, etc.) and see whether they'd have been treatable two centuries ago. If the answer is no for any episode, you'd say you'd have been dead by now, but if it's yes for all of them, you say you're a lucky survivor.

It's not really realistic - the diseases and injuries facing someone 200 years ago would have been much different than those facing someone today - but it gives you an appreciation for the effects of modern medicine.

Myself, so far the only disease episode I've had are several unmedicated bouts with flu, and chicken pox when I was younger. So until the past few weeks, I've been in the survivor club. However, I've recently been down with an illness that looks suspiciously like Lyme's disease; if it is, my wife pointed out to me this morning that I'd have to move from the survivor column to the "dead" column, because Lyme's disease will kill or cripple you if it is left untreated for a long time.

How about you?

[weemadando]

I'm fucking dead. I had pyloric stenosis as a child - of the upper valve. I die as a newborn.

[Tsyroc]

Dead 27 years ago from a ruptured appendix.

I had walking pneumonia a few years before that so that might have taken me out, but maybe not.

[TimothyC]

I'm killed for being a witch or some such after my first mental breakdown.

[General Zod]

Maybe. They didn't have ways of treating allergic reactions to honeybee stings back then as far as I know, and I nearly died from one when I was a kid. Other than that I've never had any serious injuries or accidents that required hospitalization and the worst I've had to deal with was an abcessed tooth, which could have been pulled back then. Albeit much more painfully.

[Broomstick]

Dead at 34 due to a severe allergic reaction.

If I had survived that, dead in my early 40's due to dehydration from gastroenteritis.

On the up side (if there is such a thing in a discussion like this) I would have lived long enough to have children, at least in theory, so even if not a long-term survivor I might have been a Darwinian survivor.

[Serafina]

I had Streptococcus pyogenes - Scarlet fever thirteen times until the age of eleven.
I doubt i would have survived without modern medication.
And even if i had, i would still have that problem - i had to have my tonsils taken out to solve that problem.

But i would required extreme luck to be even born.
I needed a cesarian - and was 1.5 months early.
I required an incubator - AND i had no oxgen in my brain for about three minutes, which required specialised treatment to prevent long-term damage.

To sum it up:
-I propably would have died before birth, my mother with me.
-Even if i had been born, it is very likely that i would have died soon thereafter.
-If i had survived that, it is very likely that i would be mentally handicapped - everyhing from a light speech impediment to being a full-fledged retard.
-After THAT, i would have to survive a potentially lethal illness multiple times
-And there would be no end to it, too.
-This does not even count numerous vaccines and other stuff i do not remember.

So, yeah, i am damn happy that we have modern medizine.

Regards
Fina

[SCRawl]

Before I was two years old, I'd had pneumonia, tonsillitis, several ear infections, and chicken pox. Since then things have been pretty good, though I wonder if my 19th century counterpart would have made it past those ailments.

[Raesene]

Tonsilitis, Appendicitis and pneumonia several times - I'd be dead for sure. And very myopic, so I'd probably break my neck because I didn't notice an obstacle in time if the diseases don't manage to kill me.

I always ask such questions when someone starts telling that in earlier times, everything was better, or disparage science in any way - usually, that shuts people up very quickly.

(Aaaand that's my 666th post - appropriately ghoulish )

[Thanas]

I'd be dead.

[Starglider]

I think so. I was born slightly premature but not enough to need life support, I haven't had any serious illnesses or injuries. There's always the chance of a moderate injury (e.g. nail through the hand) getting infected, but at 29 I'd most likely still be alive.

[Knife]

I had numerous bouts of bronchitis as a child, some of them pretty sever. So, it is possible I might have made it, but in all probability I would have died as a kid. I'm pretty sure my Acute Nephritis and massive kidney infections leading to a radical nephrectomy would have taken me out in my early thirties too. Took some serious broad spectrum antibiotics to keep me going till the lab brought back the results of the bug killing me, and some serious narrow spectrum antibiotics to kill the bug enough so I could survive the operation. So yeah, before 1940, I would have been a goner.

[CmdrWilkens]

Assuming I made through birth (I wraped myself in my umbilical cord and had to be assisted out, not C-section but with a suction assist) then I'd probably be okay. I mean I had tonsils, adnoids, and such removed but that wasn't to react to an infection but rather elective to prevent so its a toss-up on that one. After childhood I've had no issues not even a broken bone so I'd probably be doing okay.

[The Spartan]

Assuming I lived through all the childhood diseases that "everyone" gets, I think I'd be alive. I've had some bad injuries but none of them life threatening (like my knees). On the other hand, I imagine I'd be a particularly grouchy asshole from living in pain with little more than alcohol to numb it.

[Darth Yan]

I'd die pretty quickly.

[KrauserKrauser]

Well let's go through the list:

Dead at Birth - Probably dead as I had wrapped myself in the umbilical cord three times and require an emergency C-Section.

Dead in Childhood - Born with enlarged heart that required constant supervision, may or may not be fatal in the past.

Dead at 12 - Ruptured Appendix, that's all she wrote.

Definitely in the dead column.

[Xon]

As a child I had cronic tonsillitis due to a low grade infection in my adenoids, without treatment that would have dramatically impacted my health.

[Big Phil]

Assuming I survived a breach birth (I was coming feet first), my mom probably would have been dead. Then, assuming that a wet nurse could have been found, and I survived colic (I don't think colic killed babies too often) I'd be alive.

[Zixinus]

I'd be dead because I recall an episode while I was still a baby and I had difficulty breathing. I remember a visit to the children's hospital.

Beyond that, I don't think I would have been good mentally, counting my bouts with depression and breakdowns. Then again I wouldn't know.

I'm pretty thankful for the age luxuries of my age and the area I live in.

[RedImperator]

Pyloric stenosis. Dead in infancy.

[Ryan Thunder]

Mother had an aneurism while carrying me, so yes, I'd definitely be dead.

That, and my vision is like 20/200 (severely myopic, something I find darkly ironic,) so I wouldn't really be useful for much anyway.

[Imperial Overlord]

Live, but both my younger brother and my father would have been dead before I was ten years old. My brother's death might be a mercy as he's a schizophrenic and recalls the time after it manifested but before treatment as "hell".

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I died a few years ago. A bad hit to the chest combined with being underweight is a good recipe to pop a lung. Didn't break any ribs, and sometimes a pneumothorax will heal on its own, but mine didn't and required some casual but critical surgery.

[ArmorPierce]

Might have been dead before I was born and my mother might be head too. I was a pretty big baby when I was born and I moved into a awkward position all of the sudden and got stuck. Would have been very dangerous for both of us if I was born naturally.

Assuming I got through, that had a big a fever when I was 3 to 4 where I started having seizures and went to the hospital. I went to the hospital and they wanted to pull fluid out of my bone. My parents decided against that and pulled me out of the hospital and I got better on my own so outside the pregnancy issue, I'd probably still be alive.

[Havok]

I'm good to go. I'd probably be healthier then as I certainly wouldn't be this fat.