Comments by "christine paris" (@christineparis5607) on "Unravelling the Mystery of the Infantorium" video.
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My mother (in 1961), was a fan of some old coot doctor, who was ANCIENT, and later, I learned, incompetent. He advised my mother to let me catch all childhood diseases because I would, "get them over with". Because of his outdated bull, i was left with heart damage, nerve damage and other health conditions that plague me even now (60 years old). He also smoked like a chimney, thinking it was healthful (shows you just what an idiot he was). My mother smoked along, thinking he MUST be right. It is almost hard to believe how he lasted...
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@Cat-tastrophee
So awful! Your poor mom!! Mumps can also make people sterile, especially adults who get it. Our friend got it as an adult and he said he thought he was going to die...he was a tough guy, but it just laid him out for weeks. He said he never really felt healthy again. My mom said there were always kids who got "normal" illnesses and afterwards had deafness or problems with lymph nodes. I think almost everyone just takes it for granted that these diseases are not wiping out half the children people have today, the mortality rate, even in the modern era, was horrendous until things like the polio vaccine. In 1961, when I was born, there was a pneumonia epidemic among babies, and I was one of the first babies born at the new Stanford Hospital building, which had implemented very strict sanitary maintenance among nurses and allowed no regular visitors. I have a newspaper clipping of a photo of me asleep in the hospital, over a story of how Stanford hadn't had any deaths among babies because of their new procedures. My older sister had been born at the old hospital and been ill right from the beginning. She was always underweight and pretty frail. I'm amazed what a difference just simple sanitizing practices made on life and death, we just take it for granted today...
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