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KenW449's Personal Darwin Poll

Have you had an injury or illness that would have killed you without modern medicine?

  • Injury

    Votes: 14 48.3%

  • Illness

    Votes: 14 48.3%

  • Genetic Predisposition

    Votes: 3 10.3%

  • No, somehow.

    Votes: 9 31.0%
  • Total voters
    29
stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,596
7,245
Colorado
Following up from @KenW449 's Thanos was right diatribe in the GMT, here's a good question for the day:

How many people here had an illness, illness, genetic predisposition, or accident that without modern medicine you probably would not have survived? Or, had an injury that would have prevented you from surviving if modern medicine could not have fixed you. Everything from really bad eyesight to some other kind of limitation that would have had you eaten or left in the woods for dead 200 yrs ago.

The votes are hidden if you're concerned about people seeing yours. You can vote on more than one item.

Mine - My appendix ruptured when I was 13-ish. I was in the hospital for two weeks and wasn't too far out from dying because of how bad the infection was. And my back injuries are so bad that I couldn't walk for months until surgery. I would have been left for dead or eaten because I couldn't sustain myself or run from danger.
 
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eric strt6

eric strt6

Resident Curmudgeon
Sep 8, 2001
23,283
13,564
directly above the center of the earth
Motorcycle crash in the 70s where I picked up a strain of flesh eating bacteria in my left calf. 10 days in isolation getting 250 ml of IV keflex every 4 hours for 8 of those days. Spent the first two months of my life in neonatal ICU with a severe lung infection...either one should have killed me
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,543
7,632
Exit, CO
I mean, I'm happy to be alive for sure. But personal feelings about being not dead aside, I'm not sure the planet is better off for modern medicine from a long-term ecological point of view. Any species will out-reproduce it's available resources if given the chance, and humanity keeping itself alive for longer means there are more and more humans every day. Eventually the planet won't be able to support us.

I have a buddy with a theory/idea that we should do comprehensive intelligence testing on people at an early age, and chip them with that score. His idea is that can be used to assist medical folks when triaging people in need of medical assistance, like at the scene of an accident or in the ED of a hospital. Now, I think there's a big problem with using only one metric for these assessments, and for the most part I think he's joking. Mostly. And I'm not saying that we go ahead and kill all the stupid people... but just, you know... maybe take the warning labels off of things and let it sort itself out.
 
stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,596
7,245
Colorado
Full Trucker said:
I mean, I'm happy to be alive for sure. But personal feelings about being not dead aside, I'm not sure the planet is better off for modern medicine from a long-term ecological point of view. Any species will out-reproduce it's available resources if given the chance, and humanity keeping itself alive for longer means there are more and more humans every day. Eventually the planet won't be able to support us.

I have a buddy with a theory/idea that we should do comprehensive intelligence testing on people at an early age, and chip them with that score. His idea is that can be used to assist medical folks when triaging people in need of medical assistance, like at the scene of an accident or in the ED of a hospital. Now, I think there's a big problem with using only one metric for these assessments, and for the most part I think he's joking. Mostly. And I'm not saying that we go ahead and kill all the stupid people... but just, you know... maybe take the warning labels off of things and let it sort itself out.
Click to expand...
 
RoboDonkey713

RoboDonkey713

Monkey
Feb 24, 2011
678
462
Maine
Was talking with a friend of mine about this type of subject matter the other day. We were talking about eye sight and how many humans would fallen to natural selection with out the invention of eye glasses. Prey will go for the weakest first and if you can't see it coming for you, you would be eaten quickly. So have we as humans used our brains to extend our lives well past then length that they were meant to be? Have we also messed up nature's "algorithm" by living longer which has led to an overpopulation of this planet? I think so.

And I have had many surgeries due to sports related injuries that if went untreated would have ended in my early retirement from this planet.
 
SkaredShtles

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,634
12,699
In a van.... down by the river
While my back injury back in 2012 probably wouldn't have killed me without modern surgery techniques, I'm *fairly* certain that I would have offed myself due to the fact that I was nearly incapacitated due to the injury. So Ima vote "yes" in the poll...
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,396
20,187
Sleazattle
Statistically speaking without modern medicine eaxh of us, and our mothers had a 50/50 chance of surviving child birth.

Most of us would have been the 5th or 10th child without modern birth control.

Most of us would have some kind of venereal disease without modern antibiotics and profilactics. Remember, antibiotics not only cure infections, they stop them from being spread.

I had pneumonia as an infant, likely not to be here without antibiotics.
 
canadmos

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,437
19,446
Canaderp
I have a weird curiosity to read tombstones in old cemeteries that I find while wandering around on my bikes. Some of them around here aren't that old, dating back to deaths in the 1850's. But it has always stuck out how young most of those people died. I've read some tombstones where entire families are listed with the same illness noted. Some even have "child" as the name; meaning the infant most likely didn't last more than a day or two? And then there is the oddball person who lives to be 70-80 back then. I'm sure most of those people could have lived much longer, had it been for modern medicine and living conditions.

As for myself, I had the tendency to not be able to breath suddenly while sleeping as a kid. A few times required hospital visits for oxygen. Sure felt like I was going to die if it weren't for the steroids and medical help.

And then I have had glasses since I was about 18 years old. My vision isn't terrible, but that sure wouldn't help my odds at surviving.
 
scrublover

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,908
6,246
Full Trucker said:
I mean, I'm happy to be alive for sure. But personal feelings about being not dead aside, I'm not sure the planet is better off for modern medicine from a long-term ecological point of view. Any species will out-reproduce it's available resources if given the chance, and humanity keeping itself alive for longer means there are more and more humans every day. Eventually the planet won't be able to support us.

I have a buddy with a theory/idea that we should do comprehensive intelligence testing on people at an early age, and chip them with that score. His idea is that can be used to assist medical folks when triaging people in need of medical assistance, like at the scene of an accident or in the ED of a hospital. Now, I think there's a big problem with using only one metric for these assessments, and for the most part I think he's joking. Mostly. And I'm not saying that we go ahead and kill all the stupid people... but just, you know... maybe take the warning labels off of things and let it sort itself out.
Click to expand...
we as a species/planet are ripe for a cull.

i suspect, nay, expect we'll have a massive die off due to some sort of contagion fairly soon. conditions are prime.

IMO, it will be what "saves" humanity/the earth. massive population reduction and the resultant reduction in resource use.

#stopfuckinghavingbabieseveryone
 
Full Trucker

Full Trucker

Frikkin newb!!!
Feb 26, 2003
10,543
7,632
Exit, CO
scrublover said:
we as a species/planet are ripe for a cull.

i suspect, nay, expect we'll have a massive die off due to some sort of contagion fairly soon. conditions are prime.

IMO, it will be what "saves" humanity/the earth. massive population reduction and the resultant reduction in resource use.

#stopfuckinghavingbabieseveryone
Click to expand...
A Great Filter, if you will.

Also yes, stop fucking having babies. There's not enough of me not having babies to balance out all you fucking breeders. :D
 
rockofullr

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
I got impaled by my bike pretty bad. I bet a good Civil War surgeon could have saved me if it didn't get infected. Do I count that or not?

Also it would have never happened without these damned modern bikes.
 
stoney

stoney

Part of the unwashed, middle-American horde
Jul 26, 2006
21,596
7,245
Colorado
canadmos said:
I have a weird curiosity to read tombstones in old cemeteries that I find while wandering around on my bikes. Some of them around here aren't that old, dating back to deaths in the 1850's. But it has always stuck out how young most of those people died. I've read some tombstones where entire families are listed with the same illness noted. Some even have "child" as the name; meaning the infant most likely didn't last more than a day or two? And then there is the oddball person who lives to be 70-80 back then. I'm sure most of those people could have lived much longer, had it been for modern medicine and living conditions.
Click to expand...
The illnesses Hannah had when she was really young likely would have killed her without proper medicine and she was upside down when she came out. Haley was an emergency c-section, so traditional birth would have likely not been survivable for her or Wifey.

When you step back and look around the room, our population would be much, much smaller without modern medicine. Hell, without antibiotics how many of us would have been killed by simple infections?

KenW449 said:
So i hate the human race, sue me.

But what does that have to do with you doing something dumb that can kill you? That's what i was talking about. Not medical issues caused by things out of your control.
Click to expand...
It was the best word I could think of.

The human race without medical care would be much, much smaller. If you want to point fingers at the source of a lot of the problems though, it's the Western world - coal burning power, gas cars, chemical based everything that pollutes water-air-soil. But those same things are what allow us to make the "cleaner" tech too.. Remove the Western world, remove the problem. Conveniently that means also removing the technology that causes the problems...
 
junkyard

junkyard

You might feel a little prick.
Sep 1, 2015
2,601
2,303
San Diego
i had pneumonia, karla wouldnt of made it with our second child. But ive said it before and ill say it again, there is no evidence in all the universe that life is serious. I stole that from somewhere, dont know where.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,249
7,695
Multiple instances in our family:

1) Maternal grandfather would have died in the 1950s (bowel obstruction leading to bowel resection).
2) Father would have died in the 1960s (?) after jimmydeaning a car and breaking all manner of bones.
3) I would have died of infection after sustaining an open right forearm fracture around 1992.
4) Mariko and possibly my wife would have died in childbirth, as she was a difficult vacuum-assisted delivery.
5) Aya (brand new kid) may have died at birth from respiratory distress (on CPAP for a day as a 34 weeker).

So yeah, we are a plague upon this planet but our existence is kind of our own point, too.
 
slyfink

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,319
5,074
Ottawa, Canada
canadmos said:
I have a weird curiosity to read tombstones in old cemeteries that I find while wandering around on my bikes. Some of them around here aren't that old, dating back to deaths in the 1850's. But it has always stuck out how young most of those people died. I've read some tombstones where entire families are listed with the same illness noted. Some even have "child" as the name; meaning the infant most likely didn't last more than a day or two? And then there is the oddball person who lives to be 70-80 back then. I'm sure most of those people could have lived much longer, had it been for modern medicine and living conditions.

As for myself, I had the tendency to not be able to breath suddenly while sleeping as a kid. A few times required hospital visits for oxygen. Sure felt like I was going to die if it weren't for the steroids and medical help.

And then I have had glasses since I was about 18 years old. My vision isn't terrible, but that sure wouldn't help my odds at surviving.
Click to expand...
I have the same curiosity. But I can't do the mental math to calculate the age.
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,319
8,880
Crawlorado
I had a staph infection at 18. Dunno if it would have killed me, but that was the last time I needed prescription medication. Only time I went to the hospital was for surgery to correct a broken finger. Other than that I’ve had no health issues to speak of.
 
JustMtnB44

JustMtnB44

Monkey
Sep 13, 2006
840
114
Pittsburgh, PA
If we're talking 200 years ago I probably wouldn't be dead, but if we're talking prehistoric days then I definitely would be.

I have somewhat poor eyesight and wear glasses all of the time. I can see without them, but not good enough for say hunting.

I broke my left heel in a bike incident a little over a year ago. Even with surgery it's not 100%, and without surgery I surely would have significant trouble walking, if able to walk at all, which wouldn't have been good in prehistoric days. Of course there wouldn't have been bikes back then either...

I broke my right arm 3.5 years ago, and while I did have surgery to fix it, it probably would have healed close enough to not cause a significant impairment.

I've never had any kind of illness or disease that required modern medications to overcome.
 
maddog17

maddog17

Turbo Monkey
Jan 20, 2008
2,817
106
Methuen, Mass. U.S.A.
my appendix went bad when i was in the 7th grade. burst during the operation, spent a week in the hospital. and it was a shitty time. i shared a room with 3 other kids. one kid had his leg amputated from the knee down due to an accident. the kid next to me was in for an early type of stomach stapling. kid would literally cry for a piece of bread. but the topper was the kid across from me, Jason. never remembered the other kids name but i've always remembered Jason. he was sitting on a metal fence that was stuck by lightning. was in a full body cast and just laid there and moaned all day. basically the kid was a vegetable. he never spoke and the saddest thing was no one ever visited the kid during the week i was there.
 
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