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

[Aaron]

So, like, am I the only one so far that would be alive, and have no problems whatsoever, and possibly even be better off?

Nah, I would have been fine, the worst I had as a kid was chickenpox and seeing as power lines weren't around in 1809 I would not be seriously injured and have got PTSD at 21. So I would definitely be better off.

[loomer]

How would wisedom teeth have been handled 200 years ago, were they just left in?

You left them in if you were poor or they came in fine. If they didn't and you could afford it, you'd pay someone to rip them out with pliers - no anesthesia except booze since ether wouldn't kick about for another 40 years. He'd also be your barber.

If you got a good deal, you might get an actual doctor to do it using a dental pelican!

EDIT: Goddamn it, man. Now you got me to examining my own wisdom teeth (one on the right just finally came in properly a few months back. Been doing that thing where it pushes through the gum and then heals over since I was about 17.) and one of them is at a fucking weird angle. I'm blaming you for the inevitable pain of having it ripped out.

[Thanas]

^At that time, you might have already enjoyed the benefits of anasthesia, if you were rather well of.

[Crazedwraith]

Probably not, I was born prematurely by two months and was popped straight in an incubator. Assuming I survived that I don't think I've had anything that would have killed me.

[Broomstick]

I'd almost certainly be alive, although my leg might or might not have been fucked up due to a broken femur and a very large gash on shin. It depends on how good they were at setting bone (I honestly don't know) and whether I got a major infection.

Simple fractures people usually recovered from, but a broken femur usually left one crippled for life, there just wasn't the understanding of traction, and certainly there was no surgical reduction. A fracture where bone fragments broke through the skin usually resulted in fatal infection. Sometimes amputation would save you in those circumstances, but then there's the problem of surviving amputation...

[Akhlut]

I imagine I'd probably survive fairly well, all considered. I had my umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, but that was solved with the fairly advanced technique of shoving me back in and unwrapping the cord from my neck. I may be blind in one eye, though, as I recall having some sort of eye infection requiring some sort of medicated cream being applied to my eye. However, given my body's ability to fight infection, that may not have been an issue after all.

However, once I really started going through puberty (14ish), I started getting chronic inner ear infections that burst my ear drums quite regularly. However, they always regenerated themselves so that I could hear perfectly well, but without the aid of antibiotics, I might well have gone deaf with continued infections in the inner ear itself.

I'm also allergic to crab, however, given that I would have undoubtedly had parasites in the early 1800s, I probably wouldn't have that allergy (http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/a ... 6/5567/490), so, I'd be okay. Although, even if I did still get it, I imagine I'd be alive anyway (as I didn't get medical attention anyway after my allergic reactions, as I didn't know they were reactions at the time).

My wife, however, would probably be dead. While there weren't cars, if she got a similar injury as she sustained when she was about 8, she'd be very dead (a part of the car's frame impaled her through her lung; as it is, she only survived because there was an ambulance that saw the accident occur with a hospital only minutes away). And, even if she didn't get a similar injury, she still would have died when our son was born, as she had internal bleeding in her uterus that only stopped after she was given an IV coagulant.

[Anguirus]

I'm probably fine, as I've been pretty disgustingly healthy for my whole life, which the exception of chicken pox. I might never have existed though, because my dad was minutes away from getting a ruptured appendix and probably dying as a child in the '60s.

My only other big problem would be, as with a few of you, my piss-poor eyesight, but I'm not quite as bad off as Alyrium in that department.

[Civil War Man]

I'd probably still be alive. The only serious injury I've really had was falling through a sliding glass door when I was 2, and it's not like 19th century medicine didn't know how to treat bleeding.

[Broomstick]

I just want to note that 200 years ago myopia/nearsightedness was far less common. There is some suspicion it's linked to modern lifestyles and having children read a great deal at early age. In which case, since a lot of us would be illiterate, and even when not, books were expensive and few so reading was limited. In other words, just as many of us with allergies now probably wouldn't have had them 200 years ago, many of us with myopia now likewise may not have had it 200 years ago.

[open_sketchbook]

There is a decent chance I'd have been taken out by a bad fever at age 2, but it's not a sure thing and nothing else truly life-threatening has occurred since.

[General Zod]

I just want to note that 200 years ago myopia/nearsightedness was far less common. There is some suspicion it's linked to modern lifestyles and having children read a great deal at early age. In which case, since a lot of us would be illiterate, and even when not, books were expensive and few so reading was limited. In other words, just as many of us with allergies now probably wouldn't have had them 200 years ago, many of us with myopia now likewise may not have had it 200 years ago.

Far less common or far less reported? Cars hadn't been invented at the time so there wasn't exactly many pressing reasons for most people to even think that their vision might be worse than normal. (Since basic vision tests are required before they even consider letting you behind a wheel and such. . .)

[The Vortex Empire]

I had Pneumonia when I was 2, so that might have killed me. If I survived that, I think I'd make it, since the only other major injury or illness was a minor buckle fracture in my arm.

[Siege]

I was born prematurely, but not life-threateningly so -- beyond that I'd do just great, provided optometry has advanced enough to cook up some half-decent glasses. So I go on to do what my great-great-grandfather supposedly did: cheer on Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and go on to have a moderately insignificant career with the Batavian Republic and, after Leipzig, the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Yeah, assuming period diseases didn't get me, I'd be fine.

[Darksider]

Dead shortly after birth due to a congenital heart defect.

[DPDarkPrimus]

I would have died possibly before even being born.

[Darksider]

Forget 200 years, the surgery required to save my life was only invented IIRC about thirty-five to forty years ago.

Any time before nineteen seventy, and i'm gone.

[salm]

Simple fractures people usually recovered from, but a broken femur usually left one crippled for life, there just wasn't the understanding of traction, and certainly there was no surgical reduction. A fracture where bone fragments broke through the skin usually resulted in fatal infection. Sometimes amputation would save you in those circumstances, but then there's the problem of surviving amputation...

In nowadays Africa limbs have to be amputated quite frequently even if it´s just a little bit more complicated than a straight broken bone. Comminuted fractures and stuff like that are simply amputated. It would probably be similar in 200 years ago. So yeah, i guess you´re right. There´d be quite a number of amputees hopping around.

[ArmorPierce]

How would wisedom teeth have been handled 200 years ago, were they just left in?

Teeth were pulled out 200 years ago. Wisdom teeth probably would be left alone and you'd probably have lost other teeth to have made room for wisdom teeth anyway.

[Broomstick]

I just want to note that 200 years ago myopia/nearsightedness was far less common. There is some suspicion it's linked to modern lifestyles and having children read a great deal at early age. In which case, since a lot of us would be illiterate, and even when not, books were expensive and few so reading was limited. In other words, just as many of us with allergies now probably wouldn't have had them 200 years ago, many of us with myopia now likewise may not have had it 200 years ago.

Far less common or far less reported? Cars hadn't been invented at the time so there wasn't exactly many pressing reasons for most people to even think that their vision might be worse than normal. (Since basic vision tests are required before they even consider letting you behind a wheel and such. . .)

To some extent both - while there was some awareness of people who could see better close up and other who could see better far away, and of one person having better eyesight than another, you are correct there were no precision tests.

However, among peoples transitioning from older lifestyles to more technological ones over the past 100 years so, when there have been decent vision tests available, as literacy goes up so does the incidence of myopia. This has been noted, for example, among Alaska Inuit where the older generation had almost no myopia but their children, given a standard westernized education in schools, had myopia rates as high as those seen in the continental United States.

[Dark Flame]

I probably would have died before my first birthday. I had a brain tumor that produced too much spinal fluid, after that was drained I got a subdural hematoma from my brain rattling around in my head.

If I make it past that, I'll be fine. No major illnesses or injuries. I might have a screwed up left elbow from a minor break that I doubt would be diagnosed, but it should still be usable. My nearsightedness would probably be lessened, as noted above. I did a lot of reading when I was younger.

[Darth Nostril]

I'd be alive and kicking, only mild chickenpox and mumps as a kid, nothing else even remotely serious and if Broom is right about the myopia (I read alot from a young age) then my vision is a damn sight better.

[Singular Intellect]

No serious ailments come to mind that would've killed me, unless an ear infection that damaged my hearing in my right ear as a child would've sufficed to kill me at that time.

My poor eyesight without corrective lenses would be a serious bitch. No hope for future laser eye surgery in that time.

Lastly, I'm quite sure that back then my self induced experience with hypothermia (translation: suicide atempt) would not have been a recoverable incident without modern technology and medical knowledge at hand to revive me.

[Raxmei]

Alive. I've never suffered life threatening illness or injury. I'd need really thick glasses and that painful burn scar on my finger would still be there, but aside from that I'd be fine.

[Gandalf]

I'd be fine enough, though my epilepsy would certainly cause problems.

[Karza]

I've never even had a cavity in my adult teeth.

Cavities aren't the reason my teeth would be a mess either. The problem is some of my adult teeth chose to pop out of my gums from interesting places. I don't know how well 19th century medicine could unfuck that sort of thing.