His 101-Year-Old Grandma Had A Hole Created In Her Head To Treat An Ear Infection She Had As A Child
These days, most of us would reach for a pediatrician’s phone number, or at least turn to WebMD, when dealing with a kid battling an ear infection. But that’s not exactly how they did things back in the day.
James Marsh (@jmweightlosscoach) is on TikTok sharing how his 101-year-old grandmother’s family tackled childhood ear infections in the 1920s. It just goes to show that modern medicine has come a long way.
In the video, James’ grandmother pointed out that nowadays, if you get an ear infection, all you need is a prescription for antibiotics, and you’ll be healed in a week. Ear infections are often not seen as a big deal.
But in the 1920s, ear infections were much more than a temporary nuisance. They were a major cause of death for children.
In order to save a child’s life, a doctor would have to perform a mastoid operation, which involves creating a hole in the head to remove diseased cells from air-filled spaces in the mastoid bone.
James’ grandmother was born in 1924. She had the risky procedure done when she was two and a half years old and again when she was about five or six. Without it, the infection could easily spread to the brain.
When she goes to see the doctor now, especially a young doctor, she will tell them about her childhood mastoid operation, and they are always interested in taking a look because they’ve never seen one in real life before.
Her story sparked an outpouring of responses from many TikTok users. Some of them even shared memories about their older family members and what healthcare was like over a century ago.
“My great-grandmother, born in the late 1800s, would talk about people from before antibiotics. She said he died of a toothache, or he died of an earache. They died from an infection that couldn’t be treated,” commented one user.
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“Sinus infections back in the day could easily be the end as well. Kids lost hearing over something we treat with a seven-day course of bubble gum-flavored medicine. Science is amazing,” stated another.
“My mother had a mastoid operation back in the 1930s. I had to take her for regular appointments to clean it out as she aged. It was quite rare; doctors always used to come and observe,” chimed in a third.
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