Your life span before modern medicine?

Ghost Buster

How long would you have lived before anesthetsia, antibiotics, blood transfusions and the like. back in the good old days when blood letting, leech applications and casting out of devils were cutting edge technology.
I would have snuffed it ages ago and all in periods of 8 years.
Aged 8 - Tonsilitis requiring surgery.
16 - Burst appendix requiring surgery
24 - Massive inner ear infection requiring a mastoidectomy (Two operations) to stop it eating into my brain.

How about you?

davet82

i'm fit as a fiddle since i was born but a viking probably would have killed me by now

seamus

Meningitis aged 3. Though if I had managed to naturally fight that off, I'd have done pretty well, as I've had no need to take any antibiotics or other harsh medicines since. The only time I've taken antibiotics since is for a strep throat when I was 28, but that would have gone away without it.

kwestfan08

Have never had anything serious illness wise thank god but I do have chronic eyesight, -7.5 in both eyes. I reckon I may have come a cropper of something because in back in ye olde good days

RobbieTheRobber

Wouldn't have made it to birth as I have a diabetic mother.
If i had made it to that point though probably wouldnt have had some un needed surgery.

Adenoids removed as a child, but all doctors who see me now agree should never have been done.

I also had my apendix removed when i was 20 because they couldnt find anything else wrong with me and I was in pain
On the plus side beause my appendix wasn't swollen or bursting they could remove it with lovely neat key-hole surgery.

Nothingbetter2d

i'd have gone blind by 4 had to have surgery and dead by 18 from a punctured lung

Ghost Buster

kwestfan08 wrote: »

Have never had anything serious illness wise thank god but I do have chronic eyesight, -7.5 in both eyes. I reckon I may have come a cropper of something because in back in ye olde good days

Oh yeah. Me to. Blind as a blind thing. Would probably haver walked over a cliff by now.

Nothingbetter2d

kwestfan08 wrote: »

Have never had anything serious illness wise thank god but I do have chronic eyesight, -7.5 in both eyes. I reckon I may have come a cropper of something because in back in ye olde good days

do you need to wear professor farnsworth style glasses?

eviltwin

Never been ill touch wood, well I got measels as a child so that might have killed me.

Otherwise the only thing I can think of is childbirth, I had serious health issues with my first pregnancy at 19 that was only found out through modern checks, without it I might have died.

a fat guy

Viral conjunctivitus and a few really bad fevers.

The fevers probably would have killed me.

kylith

I had tonsillitis and a mad high fever when I was about 12, that might have done for me. Other than that no serious injuries or illnesses, but I'm a bit short sighted so I may have been eaten by something I didn't see until it was too late.

My name is URL

I'd have been dead soon after birth as I was born very prematurely.

I'd say the lung infection I got as a result of the swine flu possibly would have killed me as it was bad enough to need x-rays/ monitoring for pneumonia. Think that's it though, plenty of chest infections over the years mind you.

Never had anything major thank god.

kwestfan08

Nothingbetter2d wrote: »

do you need to wear professor farnsworth style glasses?

Not these days. As a kid I wore something nearly as thick. They were a nightmare.

FatherLen

i'd be grand. the whooping cough is the worst thing i've ever had.

wes

I have never had any major health complaints. So I would be fine.

Mr Benevolent

14 - heart failure due to valve problems.

Confab

Confab wrote: »

14 - heart failure due to valve problems.

Janey mackers, now that's scary

mike65

12, type I diabetic. I guess I'd have hung on for a little while eating rabbit food

Mr Benevolent

Deleted User wrote: »

Janey mackers, now that's scary

Heart failure isn't as bad as it sounds, it only means that the heart has reduced capacity. I had the corrective op at 2, the doctors projected that I would've lived to 14 without it.

Would not have survived infancy, due to a rare skin condition, which would not have killed me itself, but probably would have contracted a serious infection and septicemia.

Mr. Presentable

Ruptured appendix at 7 would have done for me. As likely would collapsed lung at 33.

mike65

This thread is why everything costs so much while running out of stuff!

Wibbs

Nothing that required modern medicine. Have always refused antibiotics. The only immunisation I got was for polio. Had all the other childhood illness. Measles(both), mumps, whooping cough, chicken pox, glandular fever etc. A few days off school eating ice cream and reading comics was the extent of it. When I read apparently scary headlines about measles outbreaks and such I do tend to be "so what?", though I also understand why some kids might get permanent damage. Broke a couple of ribs and fingers, but they're kinda "meh", though ribs are painful bastards. Fingers you just tie to the next good finger for a few weeks until they set. My family tend to live healthily and fit to big ages(90's) so it's likely genetic.

Throughout history it was childhood mortality that really dragged the life expectancy down. If you made it to 20, baring plagues and violent death making it to 60 or 70(even 80) wasn't so unusual. Look at Jesus' speech about a man may live "3 score and 10(70) or if vigorous 4 score(80)". He was addressing this to an audience of farmers and poor working people. If it was as unusual as some may believe - "ah sure they rarely got out of their 20's you know" - then his audience and later readers would have picked up on it. Kinda like if someone today said "a man may live to 120, maybe 140" he would be thought of as crackers.

Amalgam

You would have all suffered from something no one has mentioned yet, dental health issues. Infection can spread from there, like anywhere else.

Arabs sometimes used shredded liquorice twig and a few other bunched herbs to clean the mouth, no idea what would have been fashionable during the Roman era or in the Middle Ages.

Ellis Dee

I wouldn't be able to find my way around (or troll, sorry, surf the Internet) without modern spectacles and the three eye operations that I've had.:D:D

Maybe that priest who came to our school when I was 12 or 13 and told us the "facts of life" wasn't so completely wrong after all...:)

liamhana

wouldnt have made it passed birth considering my mother was in hospital for 3months prior to my birth trying to keep me 'inside her'....a fact she has never let me forget.

Other than that I'm pretty sure the arm break - bone out through skin - at 8 wouldnt have healed & gangrene woulda got me....

Acoshla

My mother had pre-eclampsia brought on by stress when she was pregnant with me (her mum and father in law died suddenly when she was 8 months pregnant) so without medical intervention I probably wouldn't have been born alive. Other than that I had tonsilitis when I was 16, that might've done it?

OneArt

Good chance I would still be alive, I think. The only major illness I had was a bizarre virus when I was 17. Knocked me out flat for a week, doctors suspected it was hepatitis but turned out not to be. It was clearing up by the damn I went for blood tests so the medicine just helped to speed it up.

I rarely get sick. First time I got sick from then was a few months ago I had tonsilitis, antibiotics cleared that up. Not sure if I would've survived without them though!

deisebibo

Confab wrote: »

Heart failure isn't as bad as it sounds, it only means that the heart has reduced capacity. I had the corrective op at 2, the doctors projected that I would've lived to 14 without it.

Yep I was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy at 32 (was quite ill when diagnosed after being fobbed off with antibiotics for a chest infection for months). And I remember them telling me I was in heart failure, (nearly popped my clogs there and then) but once I take my meds every day I'm grand

Nothingbetter2d

any middle aged hippies here that would have died from syphallis, gonnorhea, or herpes?

Ghost Buster

Ghost Buster wrote: »

24 - Massive inner ear infection requiring a mastoidectomy (Two operations) to stop it eating into my brain.

had exact same surgery at 23. Rare enough for adults to get it

kwestfan08

kwestfan08 wrote: »

Have never had anything serious illness wise thank god but I do have chronic eyesight, -7.5 in both eyes. I reckon I may have come a cropper of something because in back in ye olde good days

-9.5 in bot eyes here!

hardCopy

Asthma probably would have done for me around 8 years old. If I'd survived that Glandular Fever would have got me for sure at 16, nearly got me even with modern medicine.

flutterflye

The placenta got stuck inside me after labour before - had to have surgery to remove it.
That probably would have killed me actually.
That's mad.
Never really thought about modern medicine in that way before.

Chuck Stone

I'm asthmatic so it's hard to know. Would I have been less likely to have asthma in the olden days?
I have no idea.

Wibbs wrote: »

Throughout history it was childhood mortality that really dragged the life expectancy down. If you made it to 20, baring plagues and violent death making it to 60 or 70(even 80) wasn't so unusual.

Indeed. The advent of clean water supply and sewage systems made huge contributions to life expectancy (less disease).

Nothing serious over here, worst thing I had was a bad abcess removal on my neck that was more cosmetic than anything else.

Nothingbetter2d

Deleted User wrote: »

Nothing serious over here, worst thing I had was a bad abcess removal on my neck that was more cosmetic than anything else.

you were beheaded?

Simi

I had childhood asthma, but if I was born ~100years earlier I probably wouldn't have had it in the first place, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

Other than than, no major illnesses. Everyone else in my family on the other hand, would be dead! All have required serious medical intervention at some point in their lives.

Lollipops23

I've has chronic asthma since age 3, hosipitalised on several occasions including a stint in ICU. Doubt I'd have made age 6.

1ZRed

I'm really lucky I havent broken a bone or caught something bad in my life.
The nearest I got was suspected meningitis at 12 but it wasn't thankfully:D

earlyevening

Would be grand. Never sick. 36.

mrsdewinter

Great thread, OP. The worst thing to ever happen to me was pneumonia at 4, which I guess could have killed me 100 years before. Not as scary as an ear infection that eats into your brain, tho...

cocalolaman

I'd have probably died multiple times by now if it wasn't for inhalers.

Chuck Stone

mrsdewinter wrote: »

Not as scary as an ear infection that eats into your brain, tho...

Earwigs do that too. I know this one guy who went to bed with a fierce pain in his left ear and woke up with a pain in his right.

Turned out that an earwig had eaten its way through his brain from one ear to the other.

flutterflye

Chuck Stone wrote: »

Earwigs do that too. I know this one guy who went to bed with a fierce pain in his left ear and woke up with a pain in his right.

Turned out that an earwig had eaten its way through his brain form one ear to the other.

I'm never sleeping again :eek::eek::eek:

The Radiator

3 and half fours

Sea Filly

Wibbs wrote: »

Look at Jesus' speech about a man may live "3 score and 10(70) or if vigorous 4 score(80)". He was addressing this to an audience of farmers and poor working people. If it was as unusual as some may believe - "ah sure they rarely got out of their 20's you know" - then his audience and later readers would have picked up on it. Kinda like if someone today said "a man may live to 120, maybe 140" he would be thought of as crackers.

Hardly a reliable source, in fairness. And how do you know later readers didn't pick up on it?

As for refusing antibiotics, good luck surviving septacaemia without them. I would have died of said illness a few years ago had I not been given them.

pragmatic1

Had mumps, chicken pox, scarlet fever, the real flu and loads of other illnesses as a kid. Doubt I'd have made it to adolescence. Acute appendicitis at 16 would have killed me.

pragmatic1

hardCopy wrote: »

Asthma probably would have done for me around 8 years old. If I'd survived that Glandular Fever would have got me for sure at 16, nearly got me even with modern medicine.

Yeah had glandular fever too. Highly unpleasant.

LETHAL LADY

Apart from childhood ailments I would have snuffed it at 16 from a burst cyst the size of a tennis ball which also took out an ovary. And if that didnt kill me a pulmonary embolism would see me gone for sure at 21. RIP me.:(