How different would your life have been without modern medicine? How many times might you have died by now if it wasn't for modern medicine?
I was born with a congenital hip defect. I guess it wouldn’t have killed me, but it would have crippled me.
I had horribly crooked teeth. Wouldn’t kill me, but it would have contributed to the crippling.
Very, very, VERY bad eyesight. Legally blind.
So imagine, if you will, a female who is crippled, blind, and, by the looks of her teeth MUST be mentally deficient. What kind of life could I have expected to live?
I had my tonsils out when I was 6 or 7.
I had a burst ectopic pregnancy at 34.
I had pneumonia in 2012 that almost killed me.
Most recently I’ve been dealing with cranky sodium levels and that can kill you.
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If there were no cars, I’d be okay. Otherwise that brain surgery at four years old would have killed me.
I would have died from a stroke or strokes in my early 50’s due to atrial fibrillation.
Mom and her hippie friend wrapped a VW bug around a tree. My head got smashed in. Guess I almost died, paralyzed for a week.
I had an ectopic pregnancy that ruptured. If not for emergency surgery, I would have bled to death very quickly.
Life expectancy would be what it was 150 years ago. Men: 45. Women, probably 48.
I could have died back in 2007 with a MRSA infection. I thank modern medicine that they had the test to determine what antibiotics I needed, and had them. But someday soon, I’m afraid, antibiotics will be useless. So I got lucky.
I could have died other times but medicine had nothing to do with my survival.
I have extremely bad vision. By the definition of legal blindness, I’m not legally blind at this time because corrected it is 20/20, but uncorrected it’s so bad that I am pretty useless without glasses or contacts. It’s like seeing the world through wax paper.
That would be the least of my problems without modern medicine.
I’ll start with the minor and move up.
In addition to broken bones, impacted wisdom teeth and cuts that required stitches, I once swallowed a shard of bone while eating lamb for dinner and had to have it surgically removed. Thank God for that because I was in severe pain whenever I swallowed.
When I had my baby, the water broke on Tuesday night (Wednesday morning) at 1:00 a.m. She didn’t come out until Thursday around 10 pm, almost 48 hours later. If not for modern medicine, she would have been stuck in there and I would be dead.
A year later, I had Guillain Barre Syndrome. I couldn’t walk and required almost a month in the hospital with medication for my muscles and then extensive physical therapy, three hours per day while in the hospital, and then more when I got out of the hospital.
I should add to the above that if not for modern medicine, I wouldn’t be here. When my mother was in labor, my heart beat went very high and they had to do an emergency C-section. the cord was wrapped three times around my neck, she said.
@jca2 I had glasses from 4th grade on. I changed prescription every 6 months. My Jr year my folks heard that contacts stop the astigmatism, so I got contacts. It worked. The astigmatism stopped but at that point I was still blind as a bat.
As a kid at the pool, sans glasses, I had to memorize the patterns and colors on their bathing suits to recognize them.
I also remember thinking how cool it was that I could see objects and people so clearly looking down through the water. Of course they were broken up by splashing water but still very interesting.
I got Lasik in 1999 so it’s all history now.
I got my glasses when I was in 4th grade too!
If I don’t put them in a certain spot before I go to bed, I can’t find them in the morning and I’m feeling around with my hands, like on I Love Lucy haha.
As I got older my eyesight started fading for reading and I got glasses. I did have a torn meniscus 15 years ago or so and had it scoped out. Also had a bone spur in my shoulder removed. So I guess without actual medical care that I could give myself I’d have a hard time reading, would walk with a limp, and would have limited mobility in my left arm.
In my late teens I had trouble getting rid of strep throat, that could have led to rheumatic heart complications. It doesn’t always kill though.
I probably would be dead from heart failure of some sort from my thyroid without medication. I already sometimes have my heart rate down in the 40’s and an arrhythmia. I think my rate would go down to the 30’s and I would eventually die from it.
In my 30’s I had an ectopic pregnancy that was hanging on, if I had not terminated it, it likely could have burst my tube and I would have bled to death.
This isn’t me, but I know countless women who would have likely died in childbirth or been crippled or many babies that would have been harmed during childbirth without modern medicine.
Well, you have two on this thread alone who would have died due to complications from pregnancy.
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