Life changing discoveries

Aldom

Streptomycin It saved my husband's life in 1953 when he would otherwise have died of TB.

I was just about to post about streptomycin. It saved my life in 1954 when I was 14 years old. Injections every day for about a year. Just as well I didn’t have a fear of them - I’d have had to overcome it pretty quickly if I had.

Transplantation, heart, lung and kidney.
Arterial stents and bypasses gave my father 15 years more life.

The www. It’s opened up a world of interest, education and company for me. My husband is ill and I’m at home all day every day. Its a life saver from isolation and loneliness. I love it.

Blood transfusions. I'm a bleeder and after the birth of my twins in 1979 I lost a lot of blood and needed a transfusion. One of the nurses said that I would have died after childbirth if I had lived in Victorian times.

Climate change

Same here Lucca. The internet and all the fantastic things that it allows you to do, FaceTime was sci-fi when I was a teenager !

How about gene therapy? New here and eye-wateringly expensive, just one infusion to a baby will give them lifelong respite from the genetic life-limiting disease they were born with. Although it's early days, they should never suffer from it at all (spinal muscle atrophy, CF)

I too was a Rhesus baby and had a transfusion 60 odd years ago, unfortunately 2 siblings born before me both died of this condition

Laser eye surgery Have family members who were diagnosed with hereditary eye condition and then tested and aware of symptoms. This saved my eye sight

IVF/ ICSi. After 14 years of fertility treatment I had my daughter. Sadly my first born son after ten years of treatment was stillborn 24 years ago. I still miss him

Except for vaccines, nothing for me personally, but certainly the high-tech intensive care unit that very likely saved my baby grandson’s life when he developed severe bronchiolitis at only 4 months. Eternally grateful to the wonderful JR in Oxford.

Whatever the injection was that stopped my son being born far to early.

The drug my GS has taken since he was 2 to keep his "childhood wheeze" under control (They don't call it asthma now until 5+). Two hospitalisations because it was bad but goodness knows what would have happened without his medication.

trisher

The drug my GS has taken since he was 2 to keep his "childhood wheeze" under control (They don't call it asthma now until 5+). Two hospitalisations because it was bad but goodness knows what would have happened without his medication.

When we were children asthma was very rarely named until we were around ten. We were just known as wheezy children. For me, with a history of hay fever and eczema since babyhood, it was obvious that it was asthma, particularly as there was also a family history of it. The medication was rudimentary at that time to say the least. In many ways, this was a good family as most children grow out of the tendency by the age of ten, thankfully, and there seemed to be a phase not so long ago of labelling every child with a mild wheeze or breathlessness as suffering from asthma. Obviously, it is different for your grandson as it was for my son and me, but, on the whole, I think it is a better idea not to label most children with a dignosis of asthma.

My DS was diagnosed with asthma before he was 5 and it was nothing like as severe as my GS. But I don't know why you thought I was criticising I was just explaining for those who had no idea what a "childhood wheeze' was.

Safe caesarean sections have saved my life. If i hadn't had an emergency section, I would have died in childbirth when delivering my son, who would have died too.

Obviously if that had happened, I would not have been there to get pregnant with my daughter, but I had an elective one to deliver her, as I was not 'designed' for natural childbirth.

Where would many of us be without joint replacements? My hip allowed me to live normally again; my partial shoulder implant made life bearable after waking in tears night after night for years. Add to that all the medical treatments that have improved life for rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-arthritis patients. There must be hundreds of thousands of us walking around who would have been housebound in an earlier time.

Steriods, I’m a rhesus baby also, and antibiotics

Calendargirl

I was a Rhesus baby, had blood transfusions at a few days old. This nearly 70 years ago. I suppose previous babies born with this just died?

Have donated over 100 pints of blood myself, as a small thank you to my anonymous donors, all those years ago.

A friend of my stepmother lost six babies before having a child who survived because of the blood transfusions.

Trisher, it was not meant as a criticism and l know only too well what a bad asthma attack feels like and what it is like to see someone in the throes of a bad attack. I hope your grandson gets better from it as he gets older. I agree that the medicines for asthma have changed out of all recognition thank goodness. I remember only too well the feeling of fighting for breath while being propped up on several pillows and the medication taking a long time to work. I was trying to show how attitudes have changed over the years and I am sorry you felt l was criticising you - nothing could have been further from my thoughts.

Asthma drugs gave my nephew life for 13 years. And an oxygen supply was reserved for him in the school office. He also had all over excema (sp) where he was regularly admitted to hospital and had full body wraps for treatment. Steroids played such a major part of his short life.
The family were on first name terms with his medical consultant and arrangements in place so he could go directly to the hospital paediatric ward when required without contacting his doctor.
Unfortunately he unexpectedly died at home at age 13 following a heart attack. But not unexpected to his medical team. His consultant attended his funeral. He would have now been 38 years old.

I'm so very sorry to read that.

I also suffer from asthma, and know how frightening it can be, but my experiences will have been nothing compared to those of your poor nephew.

It must have been horribly distressing for the whole family too.