I voted no because at the half century mark I've been pretty healthy.

Am I functioning better than I would have been ordinarily because of modern medicine? Oh hell yeah.

In August of 2011 chest pain got me into the emergency room where 2 hours later my heart stopped. Restarted OK but it stopped 2 more times so into surgery for a pacemaker. I feel better than I had in years and still going strong. Battery is at 27% so back under the knife in a year or 2 for replacement

I take a blood pressure med but it's not so modern. I think it's been around since 1978? It does work and has very few side effects for me.

Yes
Burst AVM in my brain.Kinda like a aneurysm which they found two of when they opened my skull.they tried to use onyx to stop the bleeding didnt work.docs told the wife to get the kids up to hospital as they may not see me again.he went in and fixed it.I lost 14 days some eye site and have short term memory issues.That was 6/2/2010 today I can feed myself dress myself and drive.I dont post much because it takes forever and someone usually says what i want to say long before i could type it.

I would say, yes:

Triple Coronary bypass in 2005. Lot's of antibiotics given.

Massive infection from eating bad meat in 2011. Two days in ICU total isolation with heavy doses of antibiotics.

No, so far.

Yep. Shattered my lower right leg after a motorcycle oopsie.
Overheard several whispered conversations about amputation.
Until my Orthopedic Surgeon showed up. Lots of hardware (which I kept and made into key rings) and three surgeries later, I have a terrifying scar and 90% use of the leg.
Thanks, Doc!

Yes. Heart attack from completely blocked artery caused by clot. Emergency stent placement. Found two other arteries 80-90% blocked while they were at it. Two more stents a couple of days later. All well and good and feel fine since then.

Based on how it seemed you meant the question and the poll I voted "no" as I have been extremely fortunate with no major injuries or illnesses (knock on wood), so modern medicine hasn't done much for me in a 1 on 1 setting. I'm a very fit 45yo who eats decently healthy.

That said, in a broader sense I feel the answer is likely yes simply due to all the vaccines I've had in conjunction with our modern knowledge of the causes of sickness, disease, hygiene etc.

I voted yes...suffered a stroke about three months ago...airlifted to a local hospital with a world class stroke center where with the proper TPA treatment was administered within the timeframe (thank you helicopter and crew) I'm pretty much back to 100%...compared to many friends and family that had the same thing happen with more negative results, I feel blessed to remain self sufficient and living alone

HaH! I'm a living mess, except that I'm sort of alive. I did have some kidney stones removed back in about 1973. I nearly died of the pain.

Then all was going OK until about 2005. I stepped on a fence pole, the round kind. So down I went and caught myself with my left hand. Only I was in tall grass and never saw the thing. My palm landed on what I assume was broken glass but my wrist broke. So I was in a bind. Out in a field with a nearly new truck, the bed filled with tools. Hand tools, the kind people tend to steal. Blood all over, pain, too. So I started up the stick shift truck with no body around and drove to where others were. Then I realized if I told anyone, they'd call the ambulance and take me away. So I got back in my truck and headed out. Didn't say a word to anyone, and headed for home.

About halfway there, I needed to stop. Got my cooler and moved the beer to the seat. Then dunked my left hand in the ice. Hurt at first, but then I started to feel better, without any beer. Drove home and parked my truck. No wife in sight. So I unloaded my truck with my right arm. Still no wife, so I got out a lawn chair and sat in the drive, waiting, with my left hand in the cooler. Wife finally arrived and asked what I was doing. I told her waiting for her to take me to the hospital so I could spend the evening there.

It taught me that my perception of what goes on in ERs was right. Keep in mind that I'm a prick. And I was bleeding pretty well. They sat me in the waiting room to die (of old age). The waiting room wasn't all that clean before I got to it. So I played a game of connect the dots with my own blood. One nurses aide came out once to see how I was doing. She failed to notice the puddle, now growing to over 2'. Finally someone walked through and suggested they get someone to clean up the hazmat problem out in the lobby. Didn't go well after that. It bothered the nurses meeting and bull session. Yes, my wife is a nurse and doesn't like my explanation of event. So they moved me to a bed and plugged my blood leak. I'd have bled to death had it been worse.

That was just minor. In 2009 everyone, wife, work, etc decided I needed a stress test. I have enough stress and didn't need more. But I went to the hospital for a quickie, hoping to get out and to work well before noon. Yeah.

They put me on the treadmill/torture machine. I even asked the girl if she'd ever killed anyone or caused a heart attack. Always a first time. It wasn't really a tread mill, just an out of service snowmobile. Flipped over with the tread up. She started it up and told me to get on it. Then she said she'd run it slow so I could get used to it. Then she cracked the throttle wide open and expected me to run until I died.
Off to the cardiac cath lab I went. Then to surgery and all new plumbing.

Last year I went down hill. So after about a dozen doctors appointments (cardiac doctors do nothing, but you've got to humor them to get surgery.) So I went in for a valve job. Now I've got stainless steel valve - racing valve.

Is that enough?

Yes here, kidney failure, on dialysis now for over 5 years

Yes, kidney cancer, Nov 2017. Partial nephrectomy using the Da Vinci robot.

Surgery after lunch, went home after breakfast the next day. No treatment afterwards. Cancer free as of May 2019.

Thanks to the arbitrary CT scan that found it, and the surgeon, and inventor of Da Vinci! Also the Big Guy upstairs that made me think something was wrong.

Wow, very lucky.

quote:

Originally posted by Strambo:
That said, in a broader sense I feel the answer is likely yes simply due to all the vaccines I've had in conjunction with our modern knowledge of the causes of sickness, disease, hygiene etc.

Yes, preventative medicine has undoubtedly saved a large percentage of the rest of us—perhaps even more than the direct interventions—but because it’s impossible to know which of us I didn’t try to add that to the conditions of the poll question.

Oh yes. Concussion and broken leg (left) when I was 6. Arm break, right. Wrist break (left) which was complicated, multiple pins into the bone hanging out of the skin. Torn tendon in my right arm connecting forearm to bicep, fixed with stem cell injection (old school was surgery). Current, torn labrum in both shoulders, first one operated on a month ago with bankart procedure.

I would say kept me alive during the flu, antibiotics and steroids. So kept me alive and very much kept me functional. None of us know, with a very persistent flu, or pneumonia, if we would have lived without prescriptions. I've been an athlete my whole life so without modern medicine I'd be a busted up mother fucker.

Too numerous to count. I have a clotting condition that result in large blood clots if I'm off thinners longer than 48 hours. The first incident pushed a clot so large through my heart that the valve was permanently damaged. So yes, modern medicine is keeping me alive.

Testicular Cancer age 37. Surgeon had same surgery while in medical school. Radiation Oncologist,s wife had been operated on by my Brain Surgeon Cousin-successfully. Ey lucky with a Stage One CA.

11 months ago I had 100% blockage in one of my arteries. 45 minutes from when I called 911 I was in the CAT lab having a stent put in and thanks to the great nurse standing by with the paddles I am here.

I'm on the poster for modern medicine. As a kid I had major abdominal injury, multiple surgeries, bone and organ reconstruction, blood transfusions, antibiotics, spinal meningitis (several years later), sleep apnea, and a stroke (5 years ago).

This doesn't include the non-life-threatening modern medicine, such as radial keratotomy, cataract surgery, and a multitude of vaccinations.

I'm alive and doing ok.

Open heart surgery to replace mitral valve in 2016. On my second pacemaker. And a daily cocktail of drugs for congestive heart failure. So yea, thumbs up to modern medicine from me. It's not perfect but it works for me.