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Freedom from Hell with a Cooperative Spirit
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How did people endure before modern medicine? By modern I mean out-patient surgery and MRIs, of course, but we could say 1880 marks the birth of modern medicine, when it was discovered diseases were spread by bacteria. By the twentieth century, antibiotics were born along with hygiene education. Prior to this, people had to endure hell. Pain and disease were commonplace. So thank goodness for modern medicine, and the proliferation of “employees must wash hands” signs.
I owe my life to modern medicine. Twice I have fought pneumonia and once I head-butted a car windshield. According to the medical history of so many of my family members and friends, only two-thirds of us would be standing right now if this was written before modern medicine.
Who among us would still be standing? If so, who would stand unbroken and without pain who had lived past 30-years old? Did you know that in the Civil War, for instance, two-thirds of the deaths were related to diseases rather than battles? Mostly this was diarrhea and dysentery, but included small pox, pneumonia, many others. For those wounded, in the field hospital, infection was a death knell.
I think the secret to enduring it was the power of community. Literally, the power of being surrounded by your people, your clan, brothers and sisters in arms, generations together helping ease the burdens of pain and loneliness. I think this has been true throughout time. This is why we elected the member-driven Oregon’s Health CO-OP as our health insurance carrier and why we are proud to call nonprofit health insurance organizations our patrons. We should all have access to modern medicine and to a community that wants to help.
Image Notes: This is the CO-OP’s VW Bus we had wrapped in Health Buds. I snapped this shot in front of DOJO offices.