If George Washington the first president of the united states, lived today,
the thing that killed him could likely have been easily treated with a few pills. He s not alone,
there are many in history that died from things, that we now just take for granted.
Today, we re going to go over 5 famous people in history that if they lived today would have
been able to continue to write their story. The first is Jane Austen, the famous author who
wrote books like pride and prejudice, Sense ans Sensibility, Emma and two others. For the guys
out there, she is the reason that your movie nights turned into this...
Jane Austin died in 1817 at the age of 41 from what is believed to have been something called
Addison s disease. This is a condition where your adrenal gland s don t produce enough of the
hormones cortisol and aldosterone. These hormones play key roles in helping among other things,
with your metabolism and blood pressure. When you don t have enough cortisol and aldosterone it can
lead to symptoms like extreme fatigue, weight loss and decreased appetite, darkening of your skin,
low blood pressure and fainting, salt craving, low blood sugar, muscle or joint pains and
irritability. In letters that Jane Austen sent in the last year of her life she complained of
symptoms like weakness, back pain, stomach upset, faintness and skin discoloration.
In more severe cases you can develop what we call an Addisonian crisis or acute adrenal failure.
This is when these hormones stop all together. This can cause severe weakness, confusion,
severe abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhea leading to dehydration, decreased consciousness
and eventually death if it isn t treated. This very well may be what killed Jane Austen
but luckily in our day we can treat by giving some steroids either by mouth or IV. Addison s
disease is fairly easily diagnosed through some simple bloodwork which your doctor can order.
Unfortunately for those diehard jane austen fans out there, these tests were not available
in time for her to finish that last novel. The next person in history is none other than
the 20th president of the United States, James Garfield. He was assassinated in 1881. But,
it wasn t the assassin s bullet that killed him. It was actually an infection that was
caused by doctors who were treating him that didn t wash their hands or instruments before
trying to remove the bullet from his back. After the surgery attempt his wounds became
infected and he survived for another 11 weeks as they tried to treat the infections. Without
the use of modern antibiotics they weren t able to treat them and he succumbed to the wounds.
Infections after operations can still happen. It s estimated that 2-4% of patients
undergoing an operation get an infection but, luckily we have antibiotics,
that in the majority of cases can treat these infections. Modern practices of instrument
sterilization, operation field sterilization and the use of sterile goves have significantly
decreased this risk. If these practices were available in 1881 James Garfield s presidency
may have lasted longer than 6 months. Our next person is Wilbur
Wright of the famous Wright Brother s, the first men to fly. Wilbur died at the age of
45 in 1912 from Typhoid Fever, a very common infection of the time. Typhoid fever is caused
from the bacteria Salmonella Typhi. It s caused by ingestion of contaminated food and water or
close contact with someone who has the disease. It s presents with symptoms of high fever, headaches,
stomach pain and rashes. If it progresses it can lead to enlarged liver and spleen,
intestinal bleeding, shock and even death. Luckily for most of the world, this isn t a condition that
we see much of anymore. However, in less developed parts of the world this is still a problem
with over 200,000 deaths world wide per year. If treated quickly with antibiotics most
patients recover just fine. With clean drinking water and proper sanitation, this is a disease
that can largely be eliminated. However, if you are traveling to a less developed area,
you can protect yourself a little better by getting the vaccine for yellow fever.
Unfortunately for Wilber none of these treatments were available at the time and after battling
the disease for over a month he passed away. Maybe for next guy we are going to talk about, we
shouldn t put him on the same level of admiration as the others that we have discussed today,
but it s still pretty interesting. This is the Infamous Valadimir Lenin
This was the leader of the Bolshivek revolution in early 1900 s and responsible for the deaths of
over 3 million people. He died in 1924 according to his death certificate of a stroke. Historians
have more recently come to the opinion that he died from the end stages of syphilis.
Syphilis is a bacterial infection that is spread by sexual contact. It usually starts out as a
small painless sore usually in the genital region but often can go unnoticed especially in women.
If you catch it early, you can treat it easy with a simple dose of penicillin but if you don t,
it can progress. A few weeks after the sore you may develop a rash that can cover your whole
body. This rash can come and go for up to a year. The biggest problem with syphilis is then it can
go dormant and may not cause any symptoms for years. Up to 30% of people though can
then develop what we call tertiary syphilis. This is when it starts to invade the rest of the body
causing damage to the brain, nerves, eyes, heart and blood vessels, the liver, bones and joints
and in the likely case of Vladimir Lenin, eventually death. We can find syphilis fairly
easily through some simple blood work and can avoid it even easier by safe practices. Obviously
in Lenin s case these things weren t available. It s interesting to think though, that after all
the attempts on his life, it may have been a Russian prostitute who ended killing him.
Now, the last one that we are going to talk about is none other than the founding Father
of the United States, our first president George Washington. Washington died quite quickly at the
age of 67. He was otherwise healthy but after riding out in a cold wet day and staying in his
wet clothes he awoke that night feeling very sick and stating that he couldn t talk or breathe. They
summoned his physicians and did the only think they knew to do at the time. They Bled him,
this was the practice of making a cut in the vein to let what they considered excess blood from his
body. Over the next 8 hours they did that a total of 5 times releasing what they estimate was up
to 40% of his blood volume. He did treatments of gargling different agents, inhaling steam,
used a salve made of dried beetles and even resorted to an enema. But none of this was
going to work. He knew it was his end and he spoke his last words I am just going! Have me decently
buried; and do not let my body be put into the vault less than three days after I am dead.
Then, Do you understand me? Tis Well! There has been a lot of speculation over the years
on what exactly would have caused his death and of course, there is no way to know for sure. The most
recent thoughts though have proposed the theory that he died from a condition called epiglottitis.
This is when the epiglottis- the flap of tissue that covers your airway when you swallow
gets swollen and infected and if goes untreated can lead to cutting off your
airway and suffocation. This is a relatively uncommon disease now with the advent of childhood
vaccinations, but it is still can happen. Symptoms in children can include fever,
severe sore throat, an abnormal, high-pitched sound when breathing in that we call stridor,
difficult and painful swallowing ,drooling, anxious, restless behavior and feeling
better when sitting up or leaning forward. In adults the symptoms are fairly similar
and are characterized by Severe sore throat, fever, muffled or hoarse voice, that abnormal,
high -pitched sound when breathing, difficulty breathing and swallowing as well as drooling.
This is a medical emergency and if you think you or somebody that you are with is having these
symptoms, they need to get to the emergency room immediately. The best treatment for epiglottitis
is antibiotics but depending on the severity can include emergency airway support like intubation
or even inserting a needle in the trachea to allow breathing.
We no longer recommend draining 40% of your blood as they tried with George Washington,
although sometimes when we send you to the lab it may feel like that is what we are doing.
With our modern emergency care, we most likely would have been able to treat Mr.
Washington without any difficulty. Hopefully you ve enjoyed looking back at
these facscinating characters in history as much as I have. I thought it was super interesting to
see some of the simple things that we are able to treat now that were so dangerous in
the past. And doesn t it make you wonder, what kinds of things that we suffer from today that
in 50 years we ll be making another video saying, remember when people died of this .? I just think
it s pretty cool and hopefully you did too. If you enjoy this kind of content and would like
me to do more like it, let me know in the comments below. We would love to hear from
you. And with that, we just want to thank you for spending this time with us here at family med.
We appreciate you taking this journey with us and we hope to see you in the next video.