I originally posted a version of this poll some years ago, but I’m curious how people will respond today.<BR> <BR>A few definitions.<BR><BR>Alive - You’re not dead. (And <I>dead</I> means just that: We don’t get over being dead unless you’re a god or are raised from the grave by a god. Having one’s heart stop for a time these days doesn’t automatically make us dead, although it usually requires modern medicine to keep us from dying if that happens.)<BR><BR>Mostly functional - You can live a mostly normal life: Drive a car, live by yourself if you had to, etc. But it’s not about making it through BUDS or Ranger school. For the purpose of this poll if you hadn’t had the benefits of modern medicine, that wouldn’t be true; you’d have to have someone perform many daily routine tasks for you. <BR><BR>“Modern” medicine - <I>Modern</I> goes back a ways, but it includes such things as the ability of surgeons to enter the skull or abdominal cavity to fix things in an effective manner without a high risk of causing a fatal infection. It includes sterile operating procedures, the availability of antibiotics, vital organ transplants. All those things have kept countless people alive and functioning with all their limbs, etc. At one time an open bone fracture frequently led to an infection that required a sometimes-successful amputation. Penetrating wounds of the abdomen were usually fatal, especially if the bowels were injured. Treatments for strokes and heart attacks have likewise saved innumerable patients. <BR><BR>The question also refers to high probability, and not necessarily certainty. I, for example, might have survived spinal meningitis when I was 10 without penicillin, but probably not, so I vote yes.Are you still alive or mostly functional only because of modern medicine?Yes.No.

Ruptured colon

Entered hospital at 8pm

Surgery began at midnight

Surgery ended at 6am

Recovered but stopped breathing within 3 hours or recovery

Moved to ICU and intubated

Intubation removed 24 hours later

Treated Sepsis over next 60+ days with high does IV antibotics

Currently undergoing Chemo for Colon cancer

James

Yes for me. Bypass in 2009.
Prostatectomy in 2016.

I'm the first no vote. At 51, I've yet to break a bone. Kidney stones at two different times would be the worst thing I've had, but neither time required anything but lots of fluids.

That being said, I strongly suspect I'm reaching the life stage where something will come up that requires modern medical intervention to extend my life.

Insulin-dependent diabetic here.

Anyone who has done a ten day course of antibiotics is alive because of modern medicine.

Antibiotics and myocardial infarction interventional pharmaceuticals essentially added 25 years to life expectancy in the modern world.

Indeed. Misdiagnosed and ineffectively treated tonsillitis resulted in multiple abcesses in throat, and inflamed larynx and something to do with the thyroid that required a surgical drain.

When I went into VERY serious respiratory distress and my kidneys started shutting down an ambulance ride to the ER finally convinced the ENT doc that I needed a little more than penicillin.

Surgery, 9 days in ICU on a respirator and IV antibiotics and 2 more days in the general ward. Several months later I went back in and had my tonsils removed at age 41.

You could say so. I'm not sure I would have died, but I wouldn't be what I am today, either.

I've had pneumonia three times as well as other infections that could have been problematic, and antibiotics solved those problems.

I've had a hernia repaired, and a shoulder surgically rebuilt. Neither would have been likely to kill me, but my quality of life is better due to modern medicine.

I suffer from mild asthma. An inhaler in my pocket greatly enhances my quality of life, comfort and ability to participate in strenuous physical activity.

So, yes. I benefit greatly from modern medical science.

In addition, my eldest daughter is a Type 1 diabetic. She might not have survived, and certainly would not be as healthy, without medical intervention.

I put myself down as a "no." I have had my share of medical incidents and treatments over my 69 years, but never anything life-threatening that would have needed modern medical intervention. I would be missing a finger on my right hand, a minor inconvenience.

On second thought, I did have my appendix removed when I was six, so maybe I'm wrong about that. Although I'm not at all sure that complications from appendicitis are an automatic death sentence, even when the appendix bursts.

And who can say what might have been without the childhood vaccines for polio, thyphoid, typhus, smallpox, etc. etc? OTOH, humans did somehow manage to increase their numbers for millennia before these technologies were available.

With or without modern medicine, life is a crap shoot.

Another "No" here. At 77, no incisions anywhere on my body other than a dental implant.

On Easter Sunday i had emergency open spine surgery

It was the 27th major surgery I’ve had since I turned 18

So, yes, all the kings horses and all the Kings men have put me back together several times

Edit: I will be 46 in September

No, I am remarkably healthy for a middle aged fat guy.

But my wife would probably be dead of a kidney infection without antibiotics and the lithotripsy machine.

I'm a no as well, no broken bones, kidney stones or various other internal maladies. Did get stitches a few times as a kid but nothing remotely life threatening. 53, hvac mechanic, lots of cranes, solvents, torches, big machines full of refrigerant, roof work, high voltage (480v-600v). Feel pretty fortunate.

Wife on the other hand, ruptured appendix that she fought off for 1 1/2 days thinking it was flu, rushed into emergency surgery, they opened her up pretty good to clean her out. She wouldn't be around if not for modern medicine.

Left knee replacement.

Voted no, but narrowly. If there were a third option I’d probably be there.

After an accident that mangled my left shoulder I still managed to reposition the excavator as needed and drive manual transmission vehicles. I’d have managed to get by, independently if needed, without much use of the left arm. I did for a few weeks before the 3.5 hour arthroscopic surgery involving three titanium anchors, two supraspinatus repairs, reattaching the subscapularis, and a biceps tenodesis. I’d have minimal use of my left arm instead of being fully functional, but I’d get by. Am I way better off due to modern medicine? Heck yes! Would I be unable to be independent without it? Not yet.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: slosig,

Yup fusion of C5-C6 vertebrae after paralysis/lost hand functions. The 5 shoulder surgeries also worked out.

1984 car wreck: broke 6 places in jaw (so massive reconstruction there) and almost needed to amputate right leg at the knee (happened to have a vascular surgeon in the hospital when I showed up and he decided it was possible to save). Infection in leg following reconstruction, but was eventually knocked down.

Also have torn disc in lower spine and live with reasonable function due to modern meds.

Yes, most definitely.
I have Type 1 diabetes (so did my father).
From what I have read, they only began to use insulin in the 1920's.
This spring I began using a new Tandem T-Slim insulin pump, along with a Dexcom G6 sensor (the sensor updates my blood sugar every 5 minutes).
This sensor is miles above the previous glucose sensors I have tried in years past.

Specifically, full platelet crash due to ITP (Immune thrombocytopenic purpura) arising from complications from shingles.

My count was well below 1000 and the folks figured I would stroke or bleed out at any moment.

Was in ICU for a week, then 3 weeks in a private room, and finally let go against Doctor's orders, as my count never got about 12k.

Infusions of IVIG (Intravenous immunoglobulin) and platelets over the course of a month, and massive steroids for nearly a year, but finally the old immune system finally gave up trying to killify me.

For that, I cannot ever give blood, but I will always ask that others do so, and help pay back/forward, my forever debt.

The IVIG infusions, of which I had several, require between 1000 to 15,000 donors for each batch. (Batches? I needed lot of stinking batches!)

I owe the population, of a medium sized metropolitan area, my life.


To those of you who give blood, and as small as the world is, I bet I was on the receiving end of the best Karma ever from one of you.

Thanks.

-sm