Is coronavirus probably painful? I know it can cause pneumonia, allegedly "the old man's friend"

[NotWhatIExpected]

I am also curious to know if any of you know if pneumonia actually is relatively peaceful

I was just thinking because the debreather is held up in China because of the coronavirus and the question comes to mind

 

[Jean4]

Extremely painful. Breathing is painful and difficult.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

Extremely painful. Breathing is painful and difficult.

Is that for coronavirus or pneumonia?

 

[Jean4]

Is that for coronavirus or pneumonia?

Both.

 

[cyper-gaiaworld]

All I know is that I have asthma already, and I got pneumonia about six months ago and almost didnt make it from it. It was very painful, my breathing was constant wheezing and I couldn't really move much because I could barely breathe. Not preferable, in my opinion.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

So is the nickname of pneumonia as being "the old man's friend" just nonsense, then?

 

[Jean4]

So is the nickname of pneumonia as being "the old man's friend" just nonsense, then?

No. Sir William Osler, sometimes called the father of modern medicine nicknamed it that. Because they didn't have antibiotics then and people died. Just like the died from the Bubonic Plague.

Flash forward to 2020. We have antibiotics lol.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

No. Sir William Osler, sometimes called the father of modern medicine nicknamed it that. Because they didn't have antibiotics then and people died. Just like the died from the Bubonic Plague.

Flash forward to 2020. We have antibiotics lol.

So are you saying that without antibiotics pneumonia would probably really be a peaceful death?

 

[Jean4]

So are you saying that without antibiotics pneumonia would probably be a peaceful death?

Can I ask why this interests you so much?

 

[SuicideBoys93]

I honestly would feel better going from a global disease than the coroner telling my mom it was at my doing. I may go kiss the person infected if it gets close to me. I'm sure the DRs would dope me up pretty good for the pain.

 

[blood orange]

Untreated pneumonia will develop into an infection.

I had that happen a few years back when I was on airplanes a lot. I thought it was the flu and let it go untreated for weeks. I could not feed myself or move around my house, having a respiratory infection brought on from it made it that much more painful. It wasn't until my friend drove me to UC, the doctor scolded me for not coming sooner.

0/10 Experience, but I got a lot of codeine out of the ordeal I guess.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

Can I ask why this interests you so much?

Because it's a reassuring thought that a very common way to die would be relatively peaceful or painless

Or that if coronavirus ever became an unbeatable epidemic (not likely but who knows), I could just surrender to it

At that point though the societal breakdown would be way worse

It's a moot point though because pneumonia is treated, and waiting around if I refused treatment seems kind of dangerous and unlikely to work

And there's apparently multiple different types of pneumonia

Edit: I'm also just curious as to why different publications would call both pneumonia and bronchitis ("the old man's friend"), because if it isn't painless I would be very curious about their reasoning for saying it is, and if it is painless I guess I'd like to know more about it

 

[Jean4]

Because it's a reassuring thought that a very common way to die would be relatively peaceful or painless

Or that if coronavirus ever became an unbeatable epidemic (not likely but who knows), I could just surrender to it

At that point though the societal breakdown would be way worse

It's a moot point though because pneumonia is treated, and waiting around if I refused treatment seems kind of dangerous and unlikely to work

And there's apparently multiple different types of pneumonia

Coronavirus can be treated too. One treats the symptoms. Death from the disease generally comes to people with pre existing conditions.

If you are relatively healthy, like a cold , you treat the symptoms.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

Coronavirus can be treated too. One treats the symptoms. Death from the disease generally comes to people with pre existing conditions.

If you are relatively healthy, like a cold , you treat the symptoms.

I think I just meant if I was ever in a situation where I knew for a fact I had a condition that would definitely lead to a painless death, I would just not take any medication (there's numerous practical flaws with that, coronavirus especially obviously, since even with pneumonia I might infect someone I'd imagine and with coronavirus I'd be quarantined)

That's more for a situation if I'm ever given a very specific set of circumstances

 

[k75]

I am also curious to know if any of you know if pneumonia actually is relatively peaceful

No, it's terrible. You feel like you can't breathe enough, and just breathing is painful. Your whole chest hurts. Even though you're breathing, it feels like no air is getting into your lungs. It kind of feels like drowning on land, and there's not much you can do about it.

When I got it, my immune system was already compromised from chemo. So it hit me really hard. I had to be on oxygen for a couple of months, and it was quite awhile before I got my stamina back. Just walking to the bathroom left me exhausted and breathless, like I'd just run up several flights of stairs. I didn't start to feel like myself again for months.

All this was WITH treatment. I can't imagine how it would feel if you didn't treat it.

 

[Fragile]

respiratory issues are not the only symptoms and complications from coronavirus, some people also die from organ failure and that can be quite painful, not to mention that anything related to breathing complications, like pneumonia, is not only painful but also extremely distressing. anyone who suffers from similar illnesses or chronic conditions related to the lungs can tell you that.

and lets remember that the fatality rate is of 2% and many of those are old people or people with pre-existing conditions. the situation may not be good, but this virus is far from an extinction pandemic as some news site may want you to believe.

 

[enjoy]

i really wouldn't recommend it. the flu alone makes people miserable and doctors consider it to be a very mild virus. pneumonia is even more terrible. i almost died from it at 2 and 7 years old. all i remember is the pain. i can't imagine how much worse the coronavirus is.

there are many other peaceful and painless ways to ctb. this ain't it (unless you're intentionally punishing yourself).

 

[Ghost2211]

It would be awful. Pneumonia Would be terrible way to go.

i get very bad asthma and bronchitis secondary to any illness. Everyone in the house gets a head cold I get to not breathe for 2 months. I cough up mucus every morning it is lodged deeply in my chest, and it makes me choke and blocks up the airway, my chest hurts and is full feeling. Daily activities are nearly impossible due to how hard it is to breathe, always out of breath. i get dizzy vey easy, and all that isn't half of what you would feel if you died of pneumonia.

breathing problems suck. Trust me, no matter how much you want to die you don't want it to be from respiratory infection.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

So the overall verdict is that it was very disingenuous of people (doctors or laypeople) to refer to pneumonia or bronchitis as "the old man's friend"?

I've also heard tuberculosis called "peaceful" so I can probably assume that's also untrue
For whatever it's worth this is what this website says:

"Pneumonia is called the old man's friend because, left untreated, the sufferer often lapses into a state of reduced consciousness, slipping peacefully away in their sleep, giving a dignified end to a period of often considerable suffering."

Why is pneumonia called 'the old man's friend'?

I am a 58-year-old bachelor who elected not to have surgery on my cancer of the throat. Having lost this window of opportunity, the cancer will now ...

www.netdoctor.co.uk

(Allegedly)

 

[UpandDownPrincess]

I honestly would feel better going from a global disease than the coroner telling my mom it was at my doing. I may go kiss the person infected if it gets close to me. I'm sure the DRs would dope me up pretty good for the pain.

Don't bet on it. Quite a few of the good drugs are respiratory depressants, and no one is going to give you anything that will slow your breathing further.

 

[k75]

None of these diseases you're digging up are peaceful. Also, they rarely kill anymore.

Tuberculosis involves coughing up blood for months and fevers. Does that sound peaceful? It's also highly contagious, but most people are vaccinated against it.

Before you get to the dying part of any of these diseases, you're looking at a horrible, drawn out illness first. Not a fairytale quick death.

And unless you live in total isolation somehow, you're going to risk harming other people and will probably get forcefully saved.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

None of these diseases you're digging up are peaceful. Also, they rarely kill anymore.

Tuberculosis involves coughing up blood for months and fevers. Does that sound peaceful? It's also highly contagious, but most people are vaccinated against it.

Before you get to the dying part of any of these diseases, you're looking at a horrible, drawn out illness first. Not a fairytale quick death.

And unless you live in total isolation somehow, you're going to risk harming other people and will probably get forcefully saved.

So, do you think bronchitis/pneumonia/tuberculosis were ever actually peaceful in the moment of dying, before modern antibiotics/etc? Or was that a myth? I wonder the intentions of the doctors and others who said they were peaceful, whether they were being earnest or not

I see your point though, it's kind of nonsense to call a disease peaceful if you suffer for months beforehand, even if the actual minutes leading up to death are painless (and they aren't even confirmed to be)

Edit: And you'd be extremely contagious if left untreated so that gets rid of many if not all of the benefits of it

 

[k75]

Yeah, those diseases are miserable now WITH modern medical treatment. Before we had the right medicine, it was so much worse. Never peaceful.

Someone in my family had TB back when they used to lock patients away in sanitariums. We have a bunch of letters she wrote before she died. The treatments were hellish and didn't work, and she couldn't see her friends or husband. She suffered a lot, physically and mentally.

For whatever it's worth this is what this website says:

"Pneumonia is called the old man's friend because, left untreated, the sufferer often lapses into a state of reduced consciousness, slipping peacefully away in their sleep, giving a dignified end to a period of often considerable suffering."

Reread the thing you're quoting. They're calling it the old man's friend because it kills them after "a period of often considerable suffering."

Basically, it's the final blow.

At the very end maybe you aren't aware enough to feel so bad, but that doesn't mean the process of getting to that state was nice.

 

[NotWhatIExpected]

Yeah, those diseases are miserable now WITH modern medical treatment. Before we had the right medicine, it was so much worse. Never peaceful.

Someone in my family had TB back when they used to lock patients away in sanitariums. We have a bunch of letters she wrote before she died. The treatments were hellish and didn't work, and she couldn't see her friends or husband. She suffered a lot, physically and mentally.


Reread the thing you're quoting. They're calling it the old man's friend because it kills them after "a period of often considerable suffering."

Basically, it's the final blow.

At the very end maybe you aren't aware enough to feel so bad, but that doesn't mean the process of getting to that state was nice.

So I'd imagine it was pretty cruel, intentionally or otherwise, that doctors occasionally used to call the disease "the old man's friend"

 

[TAW122]

Very painful according to the articles I've read and information regarding the virus. It's not a pleasant way to go by any measure.

 

[k75]

So I'd imagine it was pretty cruel, intentionally or otherwise, that doctors occasionally used to call the disease "the old man's friend"

Possibly, but they were probably just working with what they had. I'd assume everyone understood what they really meant. After a terrible illness death was probably a blessing, since they didn't have advanced medicine to treat it.

But it's really a moot point, now. We can treat those things with modern medicine. People don't normally die of those things anymore, unless they're very weak or live in countries with poor healthcare.