If you were a Victorian, what would you have died of?

[AhoyThereShipmates]

Reading a children’s book to my daughter that is partly set in a Victorian workhouse and it got me thinking.

I had a broken collarbone aged 9, and a pulmonary embolism, and then of course childbirth. If I was Victorian any of these might have killed me, but my money is on childbirth. DH reckons he would have been carted off to an asylum with unusual thoughts and would have just wasted away. Go on, indulge me.

If you were a Victorian, what would you have died of?

Anaphylactic shock although they'd have just put 'fits' or something

I had gallstones and an infected gallbladder aged 22. I had high infection markers in my blood. On that occasion, my body got a handle on it, but when I was finally diagnosed it was a shit-hot infected mess. I can imagine that might not have ended very well a 150 years ago...

Ten years later, I might have survived giving birth to a 9lb footling breech baby with an overextended neck, but said baby wouldn't have come out of it too well probably. As it stands he's 4.5yo!

Second DS was transverse/ unstable. Had I gone into labour like that in the Victorian era, a positive outcome would have been considered me surviving and him dying (I read a contemporary article in a medical journal). Worst case scenario my womb would have kept contracting to try to birth an undeliverable baby. Eventually, it would have ruptured and we'd both have died. Pretty bleak!

DS1 would quite possibly have died at 14 months from bronchiolitis (hospitalised for three nights and put on high-flow oxygen). DS2's lungs were undeveloped at birth and he needed an incubator and oxygen for two days, which would not have been available in the Victorian era (assuming he'd have been born alive). That said, he arguably only had these problems because he was delivered at 37+2 via ELCS, so it's hypothetical. He's not ended up in hospital nearly as much as his big brother since discharge from SCBU so doing well🙂

My DF would have died from a very persistent abscess. My DSIS had a serious infection after having a wisdom tooth extracted.

This thread is a bit morbid but extremely fascinating!

Childbirth, baby didn't turn and needed c-section in the end. Shockingly sad to read how many of us wouldn't be here due to this.

I had infected impetigo aged 19 months and was in hospital for a few weeks and age 8 I had pleurisy and did in fact nearly die as I was misdiagnosed by my GP. Quite a long time in a chest hospital in an isolation ward ( was assumed TB) eventually they gave me penicillin and I had my pleural cavity drained into a big glass bottle. This was 1966. I lost masses of weight and dint see my family very often. It wasn't very nice

Appendicitis as a kid, or childbirth. SROM with a raging membrane infection and a 1.5L PPH. Ouch

Did you have jaundice? Do you mind me asking how old you are?

Severely ill or dead from hypothyroidism. I wouldn't have been able to have my children.

Childbirth. Pregnancy with a c section because baby was transverse so could not have been born naturally, c section was essential.

Hyperemesis.
I still find it quite difficult when I think that if I'd been born 100 or maybe even 50 years earlier, I wouldn't have survived pregnancy. It killed Charlotte Bronte.

Having experienced serious surgical complications that occur in 1 in 20 cases (5%) had a footling breech baby (rarest type of breech, breech is about 3%) and a transverse baby (1 in 500/ 0.2%) I really wouldn't have felt comfortable giving birth back then!

High five from a fellow transverse baby mum! Were you hospitalised preventatively as well?

Definitely pneumonia, I’d have died of it in 2005, if not for antibiotics.

I wouldn't have died but I would have had lots of attacks of nerves. And probably taken to my bed frequently 😀

I'm so sorry to hear this.

Are you aware that what is currently known as croup is a completely different disease from what was known in Victorian times as croup? It's viral as opposed to be caused by diphtheria (bacterial). It's still a horrible illness though - my eldest has had it badly a few times (we called an ambulance twice)

Definatly childbirth and my DS2 with me.That would mean DS2 would not have ben born.That is if Scarlet Fever aged 7 years had not carried me off before that

DS1 I meant!

Panic attacks maybe? Not unheard of for people to call ambulances because they think they're dying. I've had two full-blown ones and can see why. It's awful.

Childbirth, without a doubt.

I’d still be going strong I reckon!

I’d probably have had 19 kids by now though 😳

I'm a type 1 diabetic. Before insulin, life expectancy once it developed was less than two years.

My birth. I had the umbilical cord wrapped around my neck and needed to be resuscitated. If I had made it through that, I could have potentially bled out after delivering my first baby. I tore badly and lost ALOT of blood, before they were able to get enough stitches in to stop the bleeding.

Being a baby born in 1962 to a geriatric mother aged 39 or ....German Measles twice as a child plus several repeated cases of diarrhoea and vomiting (water borne) or bi malleolar fracture of left leg as an adult ... or 2 miscarriages ... or bronchitis.... or infection of appendix resulting in appendectomy as a 60 year old ...... and counting 😟

Didn’t lots more women have miscarriages because there was no anti d injections? So loads of people wouldn’t have even been born.

I had German measles twice as a child, measles and mumps. They weren’t life threatening.

Me too