People Explain How They Would Have Died Without Modern Medicine
Reddit user Inhalegoodshat asked: 'If it wasn't for modern medicine what killed you?'
While there is still a lot that we don't know, like how to cure cancer and other illnesses, it's undeniable that modern medicine has come a long way.
So much so, there are many illnesses people get today that likely would have killed them without modern medical attention, antibiotics, and perhaps even surgery.
Redditor Inhalegoods**t asked:
"If it wasn't for modern medicine, what [would have] killed you?"
Chest Colds
"Pneumonia and Bronchitis."
- Coveinant
"Me too at five years old. I was hospitalized for days."
- Misspuddintane
Premature Birth
"I was born eight weeks early in 1973. I weighed three pounds. I'm lucky to be here."
- doggofurever
Anaphylaxis with Milk
"Milk…"
"I was born with something nobody really knows about because it’s really rare. It’s called Galactosemia, and it’s basically like being lactose intolerant, but it’s worse."
"If I had milk, I could die. When I was born, they didn’t know I had it, so my mom gave me milk just like a normal baby, and I threw up and started to become unconscious."
"My mom did CPR on me three times, and I spent weeks in the hospital as a newborn just to recover from a single sip of milk."
- bubbling_b***h
Guillian Barre Syndrome
"Guillian Barre Syndrome."
"My immune system turned against my nervous system. Think of your nerves as wires; mine got stripped of the myelin, which is like the insulation."
"Six weeks in the hospital and four years later, walking is difficult with zero feeling in my feet."
"My doctors and people I’ve talked to say they are mostly better after a couple of weeks. I spent that much time just having a nurse clean my bedpan."
- axendo
Early-Onset Diabetes
"Diabetic coma at the age of seven."
- 011_0108_180
"That’s how my son would’ve gone at the age of three… but don’t worry, we’ve been 10 years from a cure for almost 50 years…"
- UnicornGlitterZombie
Wisdom Tooth Troubles
"My wisdom tooth came in, got infected, and the infection was spreading towards my brain."
- ParsnipRude8503
"It's actually really amazing that your teeth and gums can affect both your brain and heart. I'm 23 and only recently learned this."
- Kingpinfanatic
HIV
"HIV."
- Ginshed
"Ufffff, this."
- Kaste90
"I've told my son that when I was his age, getting AIDS literally meant that you were going to die soon."
"It seems as far back to him as Polio wards seemed to me."
- Ginshed
Bee Sting
"I was driving down the freeway and a bee flew in through the window, directly into my neck, immediately driving its stinger into my neck. I’m extremely allergic to all bees, wasps, and hornets."
"I was in between towns. I was 20 to 30 mins from the town and last hospital where I came from and at least 30 minutes from the next town and hospital. I immediately started to swell where it hit me, and within seconds I was barely able to breathe."
"I managed to pull over on a turnout and suddenly recalled I luckily had my friend's extra Epi-pen in the glove box he had left behind. I jammed it into my knee and injected it. I passed out and woke up minutes later, heart racing like crazy, but breathing again."
- Different_Ad9336
Childbirth Complications
"I wouldn't have ever even been born because my mother would've died in childbirth with my brother."
- maplestriker
"Same for me, my mom had to have both my sister and myself removed as she couldn't give birth the traditional way."
- uitSCHOT
Hit By a Car
"Getting run over, three times, in the same year."
- Vast_Cartographer830
"I'm usually not one for victim blaming, but three times within a year? You gotta be more careful of the traffic, man."
- bodopi
"Getting run over three times over your entire lifetime is way too many times."
"Twice would be too many."
- KypDurronn
Basic Eyesight Needs
"Honestly, probably just the fact that I can't see more than a foot in front of my face."
- quirkytorch
"Shut. Up. My glasses broke two days ago. My repair kit should be here from Amazon tomorrow."
"Update: I CAN SEE I CAN SEE. ALL FIXED PRAISE GOD HALLELUJAH I CAN SEE. Praise Amazon too, I guess."
- sabboom
"If you can afford it, I would highly recommend a second pair of dirt cheap glasses. I used to wear glasses years ago and oh man, did that second pair save me so many times."
- nagesagi
Bacterial Infections
"A bacterial infection, for sure."
- idea_maxx_7777
"I got a skin infection in a small cut, cellulitis. I thought the swelling and itching was just a bug bite because I’m moderately allergic. Without IV antibiotics in the ER, I would have gone septic and died within a few hours after realizing something was actually wrong."
- 3aCurlyGirl
Ear Infections
"Childhood ear infections."
- hungrydruid
"This is a good one. I used to get them almost monthly, then mysteriously stopped after seven or eight years of being constantly ill."
- scalyreptilething
Asthma
"Probably asthma. If not, then breast cancer would've for sure."
- emotional_lemon8
"I wouldn't have made it to my fifth birthday due to asthma without modern medicine. Even still, the priest at the Catholic hospital I was in wanted to perform last rights on me due to the severity of one of my attacks. My mom refused them and I pulled through."
"By the time I hit puberty, I had outgrown it, and it's all just a hazy memory."
"As to breast cancer, my grandmother beat it twice and lived to 91 and died of completely unrelated natural causes thanks to modern medicine. I wish the same for you!"
- CBus66OR
Solved by Gatorade
"Dysentery."
"Most people back in the day died from diarrhea alone because it would f**k up the inside of their intestines and ruin their water retention, i.e. you dehydrate faster and easier and can't drink enough to fix it, which gives lighter diseases like the flu a chance to go for the kill."
"The funniest thing about the disease is the fact that it ravaged human populations for eons, and the solution is fundamentally Gatorade. It was comprised of readily-available resources we always had access to, but it wasn't until relatively recently that we had a strong enough understanding of nutrition, the human body, and medicine to realize we could literally just slap some flavored saltwater and electrolytes together and help somebody."
- SleeplessS**tposter
Modern medicine clearly has come a long way and millions of people over time, but it will be interesting to see how much more we can say has been saved in the next ten years.
Going to the doctor or dentist is one of those maintenance tasks that we all have do but which some people are incredibly uncomfortable with.
In an effort to make the experience go more smoothly, some patients will lie about their healthy habits or positive oral care.
But it's more obvious to doctors and dentists that their patient is lying than it might seem.
Redditor KyeLindsay asked:
"Surgeons and Doctors of Reddit, what's the dumbest thing your patients have lied about?"
Self-Sabotage at Its Finest
"A guy comes in, between 17-19 years old for 'pebble hits penis.' Pretty odd. He says he was doing yard work when the tool knocked a Pebble into his penis, he went to check it, and now it was making pus."
"The nurse clarified that he was wearing pants. Denies sexual history. He stands by that he got hit on his penis by a rock through his pants which made him produce pus. He had chlamydia."
"Another guy says he was forced to do meth (or something similar) at a store. Came in because he thought he was dying."
"A fun bonus: a frequent flier comes in for 'his stomach hurting from eating this chili he had' while continuing to eat said chili in the lobby."
- Malice1543
"Oh, that!"
"Woman comes to the emergency room with complaints of vaginal discharge and discomfort. A pelvic exam initially reveals a significant yeast infection, but there appears to be a foreign body in her vagina."
"'Is there something stuck inside?'"
"'No, I don’t know what’s in there…'"
"A speculum examination reveals a very soft mandarin orange, peel still on."
"'Oh, that! We heard it would improve our fertility…'"
"You can’t make this s**t up."
- Drilmagus
The Classic, "No, I Mean Yes."
"'Do you have any medical problems?'"
"'No.'"
"'So no diabetes?'"
"'No diabetes.'"
"'What medications are you taking?'"
"'Metformin. For my diabetes.'"
"I facepalm every time."
- Retinator99
Oh, How Did That Get In There...
"Guy came in for a wound on his lower leg that he said came from a biking accident."
"An X-ray revealed a bullet inside his ankle joint. The wound was from shooting himself by accident while holding a gun. Still don’t know how he didn’t fracture anything."
- Cybariss
But It's Corn!
"Part of my job is dealing with medical records. My favorite part is when you are reading the doctor's notes and you can tell they are fed up with the patient's bulls**t from their tone."
"Like this: 'Patient in for a routine colonoscopy, asked if solids consumed in 24 hours prior, patient confirms no. In the process of the procedure, several dozen kernels of corn are discovered in the colon and cannot continue. Patient specifically instructed not to consume corn beforehand as this happened prior to visit.'"
- YourStolenCharizard
Plot Holes Everywhere
"One dude lied about being paralyzed after a lumbar puncture. I get a call from a nurse that the patient says he can’t move his legs following a lumbar puncture (spinal tap)."
"I called the team that did the procedure and they assured me there was no indication of this sort of injury happening during the procedure but agreed with my plan to get an urgent MRI."
"I go to examine him and the nurse says she thinks he moved one of his feet. Next thing I know he says he can actually move his legs again but they are feeling weird."
"Then this weird feeling turns into intense pain and he asks for intravenous narcotics (Dilaudid). I tell him no because this story makes no sense."
"By god, it was a miracle I tell you when this man walked himself right out of the hospital after I refused the IV narcotics."
"Also, the MRI was normal."
- materiamasta
Absolutely No Alcohol
"Patient: 'I haven’t drunk alcohol in months!'"
"Patient's family: 'It’s true, I’ve been with her the whole time.'"
"Me: 'Ma’am, your alcohol level is 325.'"
"Patient: 'Impossible! I would never lie to you!'"
- jorgeojungle
Against Medical Advice
"One of my favorite things I wrote my first year out of medical school:"
"'Please note patient has stated multiple times that he wants to leave and would leave AMA (against medical advice). He asked multiple times whether he could eat and stated he is hungry. Explained to the patient that we would like to start a full liquid diet first and if he tolerated it well, would transition to regular foods.'"
"'However, the patient ordered Chinese food delivery instead. Then, the patient was complaining of a headache. Was given Tylenol for the headache. The patient stated that this did not help him.'"
"'His sister at bedside went to the nearby pharmacy and bought Goody powder (aspirin). Sister did ask whether she could give him Goody powder. She was told not to give the patient the Goody powder. She supposedly did not.'”
"For context, the patient had a catastrophic GI bleed from taking too much aspirin."
- grantcapps
Quitting or Taking a Break
"'Do you smoke cigarettes?'"
"'No, I quit!'"
"'When did you quit?'"
"'This morning.'"
- BagelAmpersantLox
Just a Little Secret
"I had a lady tell me she had no idea how she got a rash she had on her face. I left the room, gave a report to the MD, and when I walked back in with the doctor, she looked at me and said, 'I didn’t think you’d be coming back in the room.'"
"She then proceeded to confess that she’d been cheating on her husband and thought she had herpes. She did not have herpes."
- Physical_Witness_922
History of Smoking
"A common one is about their smoking. Smoking is an enormous risk factor for fracture nonunion, meaning a fracture that doesn’t heal."
"When I walk into a nonunion patient’s exam room and it smells like a cigar den, I know they smoke."
"But they’ll tell me they don’t right to my face. Before signing them up for revision surgery, I’ll commonly order a urine test for nicotine metabolites. Often it’ll turn out positive and suddenly they have a Surprised Pikachu Face."
- Anthrotekkk
Who's This?
"Their identity. Insurance fraud using a friend's and relative's insurance card. As a resident in a very large east coast hospital, I was tasked to figure things out when the blood bank called and said their blood type changed."
"When confronted with getting the wrong blood that may kill them, they almost always tell the truth. This type of fraud has also resulted in people who have been dead (and autopsied) raising from the dead and 'appearing' in a clinic or ER."
- liberty4u2
Dentures Have Entered the Chat
"My dad neglected to mention he had no teeth... since 1976. We found out in the ICU. In 2022."
- mommagolly
"Wait... did he wear dentures, or did you just not notice that he didn't have any teeth?"
- GhostemaneBlackMage
"Maybe he had a comically large mustache."
- awksaw
"Actually, HE DOES. But he also never mentioned having dentures!"
- mommagolly
Most Recent Snacks
"Medical school student. Not a big deal but a patient lied to me about what she had eaten."
"She was obviously having some problem with her gallbladder. Typically this pain can be caused by greasy food."
"So I asked the patient what she had eaten before she got this pain. The patient said she only ate a salad with very little ranch, that’s it."
"I even explained how greasy food can cause this pain but she’s adamant she only ate a salad."
"Anyways, I report back to my attending and we see her together. The attending asked her what she ate."
"The patient said salad then adds she also ate a burger! It wouldn’t have changed the plan but why lie??"
- fireandblood03
Doctors are always full of interesting medical stories, but the ways in which patients lie is especially fascinating.
If a person is pursuing medical treatment, wouldn't they want to give the information that would help the doctor most accurately treat them?
Content Warning: Questionable medical care, sexual harassment or assault
Some people are really against making doctor's appointments or attending them when the day comes.
In order to properly care for ourselves, it's important that we follow through on these appointments.
But there are certain experiences that make it perfectly clear why a person would want to stay as far from a medical professional as possible.
Redditor Silent-Zebra asked:
"What's the worst thing a doctor has ever said to you?"
False Prognosis
"I went through treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia six years ago. I went through chemotherapy and total body irradiation with an allogeneic stem cell transplant."
"My 28-day biopsy after my stem cell transplant results came in, and my doctor literally came in stoic as could be with paperwork printed out. He just said the transplant didn’t work and I still had residual cancer cells in the flow cytometry of my marrow."
"I simply just accepted it and didn’t even look at the paper. My brain was just thinking of all the different scenarios."
"As the minutes went by, I had a different attending come in and say that there were still other options, which made me reassured. I also had another doctor from the Middle East come in after her and told me I was still young and there were other treatments we can try so it lessened the blow at that point."
"I had always been pretty optimistic even with such a poor prognosis."
"Fast forward another 14 days, I had another bone marrow biopsy to see how much the cancer had progressed to see how we could attack it and there were no signs of any cancer cells. Ever since that day, I have been cancer free."
"My donor cells attacked the residual cancer cells and saved me. I now have the DNA of a French woman that is six years old. Modern medicine can be amazing."
- GregNak
Don't Talk to My Child Like That
"When I was seven, I slipped and hit my head on the door axle. I was rushed to the hospital cause well, at that age, my skull was like butter."
"I was crying a lot, and one of the doctors told me, 'Stop crying or I'll make it hurt more.'"
"My parents couldn't do anything since she was the one responsible for fixing me up. But I know they must have been piping mad at that b***h."
- Foodcarsanime1390
Holy Misdiagnosis, Batman
"They told me that I have genital warts, proceeded to freeze them off, and sent me on my way."
"I went to my family doctor and she told me I did NOT have genital warts and was very confused by the other doctor’s diagnosis and treatment."
"I found out later on that the original doctor who gave me the treatment and diagnosed me with GW had come to Canada because he lost his license while practicing in the USA, then shortly after, his clinic was no longer open in my area."
- aycarambo
No More Martial Arts
"After my knee surgery, my doctor told me that I would still be able to practice my martial arts when I recovered. But I had never done martial arts before."
"He probably told me that because I'm Asian."
"We both had a good laugh when I told him that I didn't do any martial arts."
"I was actually a tennis player, and he told me that my tennis days were over. I still play tennis to this day, lol (laughing out loud)."
- MackumTheKnife
What's Said Behind Closed Doors...
"This was overheard by a friend of mine when a neurosurgeon looked at the CT scan of her son's brain: 'There's no point in doing this one. This kid is done. I'm out of here.'"
"The good news is another neurosurgeon did the surgery and the kid (now about 40) is perfectly fine today."
"Another story I heard while working in a hospital, but cannot verify:"
"A guy was gravely injured due to being shot in the face; there was no chance of recovery and he was expected to die within a very short period of time."
"An intern walked into the room and said, 'Is this the guy we are going to harvest the kidneys from?' The doomed patient was reported to have reacted by briefly bolting up into a sitting position. I hope it is not true, but they did get the kidneys."
- Ordinary_Today401
Incredible Violation
"I was 17 and saw a male doctor because I was scared I had an STD."
"He told me I had to give him a list of the names of all the men I'd had sex with."
"I was so young and very naive as this was a country area. And also I think I was naive by nature. So I gave him the names."
"He made it clear that I'd been shameful. In reality, it was two or three guys."
"Then he said he had to test me. He used some kind of tool to take a small chunk of the inside of my labia. Hurt like h**l."
" He then put vinegar straight onto the cut. Hurt like h**l. He said that that was part of the test for STDs."
"After that, I was messed up for years. I kept going to doctors thinking that there was something wrong with my genitals. It took one very kind doctor to realize that I had an emotional and not a physical issue, and he sat me down and told me that my vagina was in A1 condition, that it was 'beautiful,' and I had nothing to worry about."
"He said it in the most wholesome, genuine way and respectful way. And after that felt okay about my body again."
- thylacinesighting
Just, Gross.
"When I was 19, my primary care doctor (male) told me he could do a pap smear for me at my physical."
"When I told him I already had a gynecologist, he said, 'I can do it professionally or personally.'"
" Needless to say, I never saw him again and reported him."
- 2SadAllTheTime
Be More Reassuring
"'Welp, looks like you're probably going to go blind!'"
"While I have visions of myself walking about tapping a white cane in front of me, he blithely adds, 'But don't worry about it. Corneal transplants are 99% effective, you'll be fine.'"
"I did have transplants later when eyesight got bad enough to warrant it. They worked a miracle, but man, lead with the, 'You'll be fine,' next time."
- SchaefSex
How Frightening
"Three years ago, I went for an eye test, and the optician gave me a note and told me to go directly to an eye hospital."
"I gave the note to the reception at the eye hospital, the lady said, 'Oh, right, come this way,' and I was taken right through the waiting room and put in a CT scanner within 20 minutes of arrival."
"Shortly after, a doctor came and said that, 'There is something in the middle of your brain,' and that an ambulance is going to take me to a neurosurgery specialist hospital."
"A few hours later, I was having a drain put into my skull to get rid of built-up spinal fluid pooling behind my eyes."
"An MRI scan revealed a golf ball-sized cyst in the middle of my head that was causing problems."
"That was a pretty bad day."
- Cubix89
Incredibly Careless
"A doctor said that I obviously didn't dislocate my knee (I had put it back in myself before I went to ER) because it wasn't swollen out like a balloon."
"He then proceeded to push my knee down flat after it had seized in a bent position to put a stretchy bandage on it."
"I went back two days later because I had lost feeling in my toes as the knee had pinched nerves. They did an MRI and I had a complete tear of the ACL, and my bones in the shin bone and femur were bright white from the bone bruises/fractures."
"I absolutely dislocated my knee and the doctor just smashed my knee down and said, 'Off ya go,' basically."
- sillicibin
Abstinence Only
"I was 18 or 19, and at my first gynecology appointment, I told her how something hurt when I had sex and I wanted to start birth control."
"She told me that I was too young to have sex so she wasn’t going to help with that."
- sweetgirl757
More Exercise Isn't Always the Answer
"I would constantly complain to my doctor that I couldn’t breathe when I would walk and I would get shortness of breath, I was always tired and fatigued, and I would get dizzy if I walked too long."
"She always brushed it off and told me to get more sleep or drink more water, even though I was getting plenty of both."
"Finally, I made an appointment to talk to her face to face, and she flat-out told me I was lazy and needed to exercise more."
"I was so embarrassed because I went with my husband and she made me feel like I was just this lazy couch potato."
"I switched doctors, and my new doctor decided to do blood work, which is something that other lady should have done in the first place, and found out I was severely anemic, to the point of needing blood transfusions."
"I felt soooo much better after I got my infusions. Some people just shouldn’t be practicing medicine!"
- NotAsPlanned-
Worst Case Scenario
"At 30, I was rushed into hospital out of the blue with a Heart Infection, and needing a valve replacement."
"The Professor was absolutely brilliant, but she told me off the record that, 'You may want to get any close family to come and visit, and sort out any important paperwork as it's not guaranteed that you'll wake up again.'"
" I obviously pulled through, but her honesty was reassuring, and even after ten years, we still send the odd handwritten letter to each other."
"(We also had these stupid personal televisions at each bed which cost about £2 an hour to watch. The money would seriously rack up as I was in there for weeks, but she blagged me a pirated code so that I could watch it for free.)"
- stanagetocurbar
How Encouraging
"It was to my husband, I was in the room. He said, 'I’m not going to figure out what it is. If it was serious, you’d be dead by now.'"
"Later, we found out that this doctor was the one that my husband’s uncle was seeing before he was diagnosed with colon cancer. By the time another doctor found it, it was too late. He said there was no way it should have been missed."
- Mellopiex
Reality Check
"I’m a physician. Sometimes I worry that I’m not doing a good job because it took me an hour to return a patient’s call, or some other small thing. Then I read stories like these."
- MidnightMiasma
While there are always going to be situations where we need to seek medical attention, instances like this make it perfectly clear why some people would rather skip that appointment.