Your post made me think of a classmate from the Eastern Shore of MD. She had a terrible fever and her relatives had put onions in pantyhose in different locations on her.
Finally, she went to the hospital. Too sick to take care of it herself and forgetting about the onions, she didn't say anything as the attendants started taking off her clothes - and onions fell out and rolled all over the emergency room floor!
Turns out she had menningitis.
When my kids were little and had chest colds my Dr. prescribed boiling onions.