[Ken H]

I know one person who lost a spleen after falling off a horse and another who lost a kidney the same way. Wonder how many people died from falling off horses prior to modern trauma surgery.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Wonder how many people died from falling off horses prior to modern trauma surgery.”

Bonnie Blue Butler, for one. ;)

[rfp1234]

A lot, including Catherine the Great of Russia.

[katana]

I remember reading somewhere that it was an extremely common cause of death. Not much you could do for someone with a ruptured spleen or rib-punctured lung pre-20th century. One famous supposed "victim" was Ghengis Khan (or if you're John Kerry, "Jenjees Khhhaan").

Of course lots of things we expect to live through like childbirth or any sort of infection were commonly lethal along with diseases like cholera and typhus that are unheard of outside the pits of the third world because of modern sanitation. It's fun to ask confirmed Luddites if they would enjoy the daily dose aroma of human and animal s*** and watching some of their children die slow and pain filled deaths as a matter of course. Most of them think life back then was pristine and that Bambi was a documentary.