How Did People Handle Those Who Were In A Coma Before Feeding Tubes Existed?

This question was originally posted on Quora.com and was answered by Steven Frederick Baljkas, studied History of Biology & History of Medicine at University of Toronto



Sadly, Elliott's answer is dead on.

To add one minor if morbid detail; before the 18th century at least, people in comas were often taken to be dead and were buried accordingly. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was even 'popular' knowledge / fear that this could happen. That led to a 'fad' of having bells connected to a string leading into one's coffin, just in case one had been pronounced dead prematurely and buried alive (especially in a cholera or other epidemic outbreak where resources were taxed and the need for speedy burials outweighed the normal concern for proper certification of death, which, to be fair, was more difficult in that era). One can see the remains of this in some North American and British cemeteries.

As a former student of the History of Medicine, I can tell you honestly that, to paraphrase Leibniz, we live in the best of all times that have yet been on this world when it comes to what medical science can spare us from suffering and dying of, appropriate resources provided.

It is true that many folks in the so-called First World nations have it better in most regards than the majority of people in Third World nations. Inequality exists globally but the kinds of diseases and disorders that afflict populations differ, too. Even in the West under the best possible access to Scientific Medicine, we can still die of peritonitis from an abdominal wound not treated quickly enough. In catastrophic circumstances, we can see again just how quickly advanced technology fails and how frail we still are in the face of so much when it does.

As for your original question, just as throughout much of the world right now, where access to top-level medical resources is absent or limited, injured and ill people simply succomb and die. End of story. Next patient.

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