Golden Era Medical Care

[TraditionalFrog]

Unfortunately, I have taken ill with a nasty case of bronchitis.

This led me to thinking... How would bronchitis and other common ailments have been treated during the Golden Era? What type of medications, prescribed or otherwise would have been around or used?

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I called my doctor about a yucky cough that wouldn't go away about 4 years ago. The nurse advised me that if I didn't mind drinking alcohol to heat up some whiskey and lemon. It worked, saving me a doctor visit and bill. I can imagine alcohol was administered for medicinal purposes in the Golden Era.
Mustard plasters were used for something in the olden days. Castor oil and cod liver oil were given to children. Don't know what for. Merthiolate was put on cuts of all sizes.
Two years ago when I finally visited my doctor for a finger I couldn't bend for months (it was broken of course :eusa_doh: ) the nurse told me she would have him prescribe me some new antibiotic for my bronchitis, which I didn't even know I had! I'm oblivious.

 

[dostacos]

many things we treat now would have been fatal years ago.

During the civil war more men died from disease than bullet wounds.

Of those shot 50% died, of the survivors 50% had an amputation.

As the wars continued field medicine improved and so did the survival rate of the troops. MANY of the improvements ended up helping everybody.

the point being that medicine has improved by leaps and bounds from the GOLDEN ERA and before.

growing up through the Polio crisis of the 50s I would not want to deal with all the problems from before. When I started working at a children's orthopedic hospital in 1989 we averaged 10-15 NEW polio patients a month. Now we see maybe 2 new patients per YEAR, when my dad dealt with it, there were entire wards set up JUST for the Polio patient.

My dad was giving a tour at the hospital one day and they were in the wing with the IRON LUNGS. one of the patients was pregnant, the elderly lady looking at the lady, then through the little window, turned to my dad an asked how she could be pregnant, there was not enough room for two people inside the chamber????


My dad explained to her that the patients don't all spend 24/7 in the iron lung, and she could have been pregnant before she contracted polio.

Dan

 

[Paisley]

Bed rest was more popular then than now. In one of Dale Carnegie's books, he writes of a young woman who collapsed just from burning the candle at both ends. The doctor ordered her to spend a year in bed.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was little and had any kind of a bad cough, my mother would dose me with paregoric -- an opium distillate that was very popular for "quieting the baby." Our family doctor was very old school -- he was in his 80s -- and didn't go in for them newfangled antibiotics...

 

[dhermann1]

I was 7 when the Salk vaccine first came into use, so my peers were the last ones to know the terror of polio. I remember a polio scare in the early 50's that left thousands of children paralyzed. All they had to give us was gamma globulin. I don't know if it helped or not.
Speaking of peragoric, I have a friend (same age) whose parents came into his bedroom when he was about 2, and found a whole row of little bottles under his crib. Unbeknownst to them his nanny had been stuffing him full of the stuff almost non stop. I don't know if it affected him long term or not, but he did have a serious alcohol problem that has helped lead to his being a victim of mild dementia at barely 60 years of age.
Slightly off topic, but what the heck: When I was little and living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, around 1952, our family peditrician, Dr Stimson, in his waiting room had a stereopticon to amuse his young patients. We loved it. He had a stack of cards, and the old wooden framed viewer. Like the 1890's!

 

[Big Man]

I think a lot of people don't fully understand that most medications of any significance are post-WW II. That's not to say there wasn't "quality medical care" pre-WW II; but in comparison with what has been "common" in just the past 20 years or so, medical practices of the "golden era" left a lot to be desired.

 

[deanglen]

In Michigan, the State of Michigan established a system of Sanatoriums for Tuberculosis patients. Patients received various treatments, but the main one was bed rest. Some patients remained there for 18 months or longer:
http://www.livgenmi.com/sanatorium.htm. A couple who are members of our church met there during WWII and ended up getting married. Interesting stories about their times. The wife passed away recently. I talked with her husband at length about the experience. He said it was a well run and not unbearable place. It was closed around 1945.

dean

 

[Tomasso]

I think a lot of people don't fully understand that most medications of any significance are post-WW II.

In the early 70's a noted Golden Age surgeon told me that 90% of medical knowledge up to then had been acquired during and post WWII. He also mentioned that a myriad of surgical techniques were invented on the battlefield.

 

[Flivver]

When I had bronchitis as a kid back in the 1950s, my Mom rubbed Vick's VapoRub salve all over my chest. It really seemed to help, although it might have all been in my immagination. What a smell!

Apparently, you can still buy the stuff.

 

[BegintheBeguine]

I was 7 when the Salk vaccine first came into use, so my peers were the last ones to know the terror of polio. I remember a polio scare in the early 50's that left thousands of children paralyzed. All they had to give us was gamma globulin. I don't know if it helped or not.
Speaking of peragoric, I have a friend (same age) whose parents came into his bedroom when he was about 2, and found a whole row of little bottles under his crib. Unbeknownst to them his nanny had been stuffing him full of the stuff almost non stop. I don't know if it affected him long term or not, but he did have a serious alcohol problem that has helped lead to his being a victim of mild dementia at barely 60 years of age.
Slightly off topic, but what the heck: When I was little and living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, around 1952, our family peditrician, Dr Stimson, in his waiting room had a stereopticon to amuse his young patients. We loved it. He had a stack of cards, and the old wooden framed viewer. Like the 1890's!

What a neat idea to have a stereopticon, hours of fun!
A day care was quite recently closed in my city for dosing the youngsters with children's Benadryl to keep them quiet.
This thread seems like it could be merged with the old-timey ailments 'Whining' thread, what with all the talk of TB and polio?

 

[Twitch]

If the cancer that I killed twice in the last 3 years hadn't killed me the latest complication from my last treatment that left me with a super nasty infection would have. In the last few days I survived only because of antibiotics!!! While MUCH is to be desired with today's medical system screw the Golden Age in comparison cause I'd be dead 3 times! Hmm? is that possible?

 

[Trickeration]

Twitch - I'm glad you're well. My mom is also a 2 time survivor, thanks to modern medicine, research and routine testing.


My mom once gave me a medical book called Obstetrics For Nurses, dated 1928. My husband and I have a few older books and she thought it might be an intersting addition to our library. Inside the cover were some notes written by it's original owner, who was apparently studying to be a labor and delivery nurse. Here are some of her notes:

Schedule for O.B patient getting up (after childbirth)

4th day - bed raised one notch
5th day - bed raised 2 notches
6th day - bed raised 3 notches
7th day - sit upright in bed
8th day - wheel chair
9th day - step to wheelchair
10th day - may go home

Other than that, the book is both interesting and frightening. Had I read such a book or seen the tools used back then , I would have been scared to death to have a baby.

 

[dostacos]

I was 7 when the Salk vaccine first came into use, so my peers were the last ones to know the terror of polio. I remember a polio scare in the early 50's that left thousands of children paralyzed. All they had to give us was gamma globulin. I don't know if it helped or not.
Speaking of peragoric, I have a friend (same age) whose parents came into his bedroom when he was about 2, and found a whole row of little bottles under his crib. Unbeknownst to them his nanny had been stuffing him full of the stuff almost non stop. I don't know if it affected him long term or not, but he did have a serious alcohol problem that has helped lead to his being a victim of mild dementia at barely 60 years of age.
Slightly off topic, but what the heck: When I was little and living on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, around 1952, our family peditrician, Dr Stimson, in his waiting room had a stereopticon to amuse his young patients. We loved it. He had a stack of cards, and the old wooden framed viewer. Like the 1890's!

well it sounds like we are about the same age, my father worked at a major Polio hospital so I got to know some of the major players in Post Polio treatment. you may win the age but I bet I win the gray hairs lol

 

[dostacos]

Twitch - I'm glad you're well. My mom is also a 2 time survivor, thanks to modern medicine, research and routine testing.


My mom once gave me a medical book called Obstetrics For Nurses, dated 1928. My husband and I have a few older books and she thought it might be an intersting addition to our library. Inside the cover were some notes written by it's original owner, who was apparently studying to be a labor and delivery nurse. Here are some of her notes:

Schedule for O.B patient getting up (after childbirth)

4th day - bed raised one notch
5th day - bed raised 2 notches
6th day - bed raised 3 notches
7th day - sit upright in bed
8th day - wheel chair
9th day - step to wheelchair
10th day - may go home

Other than that, the book is both interesting and frightening. Had I read such a book or seen the tools used back then , I would have been scared to death to have a baby.

now with HMOs it is, check in at noon, have baby, check out at 1PM and get back to work!

my wife had three complicated deliveries [last 2 c section] and the last 2 we had to pay well baby costs because she could not go home as soon as the kids, the first time she was kicked out and had to leave #1 son to get "cooked" under the billeribbon {SP} light had we not been in the medical profession [wife is an RN] I think we would have freaked at some of what they did.