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  • Paraplegia as a cause of death?

    I have just received my ggg grandmother's death cert & was surprised to see the cause of death was "paraplegia - 9 months". I have looked up what this means & am just a bit surprised that it could be a cause of death, particularly after 9 months. Does anyone have any ideas? The lady in question was 51 & she died in 1877.
    Last edited by Lynn The Forest Fan; 19-05-08, 15:55.
    Lynn

  • #2
    Lynn

    Paralysis in those days would eventually cause death by wasting of the muscles, which includes the heart of course. She would have been bedridden and succumbed to either a heart attack or a stroke.

    She may not have been able to swallow properly, and therefore careless and haphazard feeding would have hastened her end.

    Not a nice way to go.

    OC

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    • #3
      Hi Lyn, A friend of my OH's is a paraplegic, and had been since his teen's(accident involving a rope swing and a river). It's only due to medical advancement that he's still alive now and has been in hospital many times with a number of problems ranging from infected bedsores to a heart op, any of which I'm sure back in the 1870's would have killed him.
      Fiona. xx

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      • #4
        Crikey, that doesn't sound like a nice death at all. I wonder if the paralysis was caused by an accident? that might have been reported in the newspaper although it would be hard to search for it, particularly as her name was Smith.
        Lynn

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        • #5
          She may have had a stroke, which caused the paralysis. Sometimes the cause of death is very unlikely. I have one chap in my tree who died of chronic laryngitis (personally I think he must have had throat cancer).
          ~ with love from Little Nell~
          Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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          • #6
            pnemonia is always the cause of death in bedridden people brenda xxx

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            • #7
              Infantile paralysis (polio) isn't confined to infants and a stroke (or a series of them over several months)) can render you unable to move.
              Janet in Yorkshire



              Genealogists never die - they just swap places in the family tree

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              • #8
                I have one in my extended tree, who fell through a rotten floor onto an iron mangle in the cellar beneath, breaking her back. According to the burial register, she died 31 days later, of "paralysis".

                OC

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                • #9
                  Its frightening when you read the ages of these people - it makes you feel you are living on borrowed time and should go out and blow the kids' inheritence doesnt it.

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                  • #10
                    So it might well not be anything as interesting as an accident, thats a shame. it is certainly a more interesting cause of death, than the usual old age. 51 does seem to be young to die, her husband lived for another 22 years, although after dhe died, their children seemt o be scattered. In 1881. 2 of them were staying with friends whilst the youngest had moved to live with an older sister in Leicestershire.
                    Lynn

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                    • #11
                      I've just been reading a book that says the average age of death in 1900 was 48!!!

                      Of course the figures could have been skewed by the still highish rate of child mortality.
                      But you can't make any logical conclusions - I have ancestors dying in the 1840s at the age of 98 and others who dropped, aged 40ish in the 1920s.

                      Plus, in my early 50s, I know many contemporary or younger people who have died.

                      My Mum will be 84 in August and she is the oldest person she knows. Last year she went to 7 funterals. One of her friends, who died 4 years ago, was only 57.
                      ~ with love from Little Nell~
                      Chowns, Dunt, Emms, Mealing, Purvey & Smoothy

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