Medicine in the Middle Ages Historical Essay Example

The Middle Ages was a horrible time to live during, there was little to no medical treatment, many illnesses, and social classes, which all of those could have caused the death of people. In general, people could have gotten people killed, and the “medical treatment” could have done just as bad as the illnesses. 

The most dangerous disease during the middle ages was The Bubonic Plague, which ended the lives of 75,000,000–200,000,000 million people! And all of this simply because they didn’t have the medicine they needed. This eventuality wasn’t the only illness that killed many. Illnesses like this were a BIG issue during the Middle Ages, if 1 rodent or flea jumped onto someone, it would seem as if it wasn’t that bad of a thing, but in fact, the person could die. Just a flea! It was easy for the Bubonic Plague to spread. The fleas would jump on animals (a rat would be a great example) and would suck the rat's blood and the rat carried the bacteria. Though, they didn’t know that the real reason was fleas and rodents. Some thought it was a punishment from God or that the air was bad; some thought maybe because the planets were positioned weirdly so; they thought that that was what caused the black plague. Because of these weird assumptions, they came up with weird cures! I’ll list some. Sit next to a fire (which worked for a pope), attack people that have a different religion, avoid breathing in the same air that a plague victim was around, carry flowers, see no one (quarantine yourself), run away from your country, go to a church, and ask for forgiveness. 

Also, Many didn’t have food which didn’t help with survival odds. Just the simple flu that many get today, would kill people because they didn’t have the medicine they needed. It was so rough to just be alive in the Middle Ages not having food, there were social classes. So people would be treated differently based on wealth and other things. The Middle Ages was harsh on everyone who was born during it, including children. Many kids, adults, teens, and babies. And if someone got sick, they had to go through either no treatment or weird treatments, like doing an exorcism, using leeches, or putting frogs on the wounds which is what they did for the black plague. 

Next, people during the middle ages struggled with medical care. The Middle ages either had no treatment for the person's symptoms or treatment that really didn't do. Medieval symptoms are really strange. Sometimes they would tell patients to rub frogs' belly on to their body, or if the person had contracted the black plague there was one treatment they told people which was to cut the black spots that would appear because of it. Also, surgery was really bad during the middle ages. If the person had to have surgery it was very dangerous for them. They had nothing to numb the pain or stop bleeding or stop infections from happening. Most likely if a patient had surgery during the middle ages they would die because of all the risk and all the dangers that could happen during the surgery. 

Another reason why the Middle Ages was rough was that they had social classes during the Middle Ages, which means if people were poor, people would be treated terribly and there were slaves during this time, and the slaves were beaten, starved, and during winter they had to walk around for 8 hours each day. And people treat people differently just because of their money status or if someone is lucky and born into a rich family. And it wasn´t even the persons fault for being born a slave. If people were born unlucky and a slave the people wouldnt even get to become a “normal” person.  The people who were already slaves, would be a slave until the day they would die. They would even have young kid slaves. Children could become slaves at the age of 7-10. And doing a simple thing such as spilling something could get the slave killed painfully. 

Lastly, the middle ages were rough for the people who had illnesses or were low in the social class, but, if people were even high in the social class they could still die very easily. Getting an illness was one thing but treating that illness could still be dangerous. As in, their illnesses didn't really heal them or help them. One thing they did to treat a certain illness was the bubonic plague. They would cut open the black spots they got from the plague. Some weird treatments include putting needles into the person's eye with no anesthetics. And if someone needed surgery, It wouldn't be a good thing because of their little skill of medical treatments. The Middle Ages doctors couldn't take away the pain, they couldn't prevent infection and they couldn't stop bleeding, which the infection could kill the patient, and if they couldn't stop bleeding then the patient would bleed out. 

In conclusion, the middle ages were such a struggle to be born in, anything could end your life just like that. Simple things that some people  could get today, would easily kill people in the middle ages. Illnesses like the flu, tuberculosis, smallpox. Being poor back then could get you killed and cause you to get mistreated horribly under unfair conditions.