Very unfortunate cause of death

[Kath nr the Crooked Spire]

My g grandmother died in 1880 of child birth and 7 days diarrhoea. She left three children aged ten, five, and eighteen months.
I have never been able to trace the baby.

The water quality was probably very poor and the conditions not so hygienic.

[Uncle John]

The world must have fallen out of his bottom!

The punch line of a very old joke (cod advertisement).

"Are you tired, listless, feel as though the bottom has dropped out of your world? Take Andrews Liver Salts and you'll feel as if ........."

[Jennie H]

It could have been coeliac disease. Even these days it can go undiagnosed for years. Years ago it was seen as a wasting disease as the food was never properly digested and the sufferer lost weight. For coeliacs the only way to stop that is to avoid gluten, which of course is in bread-a staple food I would imagine in those days.

[Bee]

Maybe Crohn's Disease? Causes inflamation of the gastrointestinal tract, resulting in scarring and thickening of the bowel (lower part of large intestine) wall. And also causing diahrroea and inability to retain/absorb much nutrition, I imagine.

Not nice! Poor chap.

Bee.

[Elizabeth Herts]

OH's poor great-great grandmother died in 1851 from:

Uterine Disease 2 years and Haemorrhage 6 months

She was in her 50s. Now she would get sorted. Poor woman.

My great-great-great grandmother died from Cholera in 1854 in London. Her husband died 6 weeks later for anaemia, and I have wondered if this could be related to cholera?

[Paul Barton, Special Agent]

"Hello Mr Evans, I'll have a sack of your best King Edwards please. Look at that... they must be fresh.... that brown mud on them is still moist!"

[Christine in Herts]

Doesn't "chronic" have a subtly different meaning in medical jargon: not "continuous" but "persistent"/"recurrent".

In that case, some of the suggestions above would certainly make sense.

Christine

[Paul Barton, Special Agent]

Surely one of our members has some medical expertise?

[Little Nell]

"A chronic condition is one lasting 3 months or more, by the definition of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics" - source: Chronic definition - Chronic Pain: Health and Medical Information Concerning Chronic Pain Management on MedicineNet.com

I always understood chronic to mean ongoing/unchanging, but I have an ancestor who died of "chronic laryngytis" which puzzled me.