User:Richard ca.1941

I was born in 1941 when medical care was pretty primitive. My mother went through a pregnancy which lasted almost to the eleventh month, with a three day labor. I was born dead, no pulse, no immediate respiration. I was known at that time as a "black baby" the color due to a lack of oxygen during the birthing process, and not due to race. The problem was a long delivery because I was a breech birth, i.e. being born butt first with the umbilical cord being pinched which cut off my oxygen supply. It took a while but I came around. This case was written up by the attending doctor Richard Bechk, and published in a medical journal (name not known) which may be in the Library of Congress. Then as a child I had most of the diseases which killed kids of that era. Mumps, measles, German measles, chicken pox, scarlet fever, and possibly a mild case of polio to name the ones I remember, and a blood infection due to falling on a wooden block, puncturing my knee which became infected, and spread to the blood stream. All before the age of ten. I'm still here after 73 years after having two heart attacks (After the second one the Doctor said 24 to 48 hours of life left without an operation.), and a moderate stroke, all after 1999, as well as some complications from diabetes, fibromyalgia and major arthritis. I'm not bragging or complaining as I am sure that there are people who have had it worse and may deserve more credit than I, but I am sure glad to still be around. Richard ca.1941 (talk) 16:20, 5 November 2014 (UTC)