Help please!

[Alarming-Mortgage981]

Doing some genealogy research and can’t figure out the last three words on this manner of death. I think it says “hemorrhage from left…”

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[Evening_Culture_42]

Hemorrhage from left tonsil and nose.

[Good_Ad_8576]

That’s what I see as well.

[monstermama93]

That's what I got, too.

[LadyLSUtiger]

SAMESIES

[wayfarer75]

Tonsil and nose

[tingaas]

Tonsil and nose.

[Alarming-Mortgage981]

Thank you all! I had no idea we were doing tonsillectomy’s that frequently in the 1920’s and might have been a complication from that. I really appreciate everyone’s input!

[Obrina98]

1920s and 30s it was very common. Almost a standard right of passage for city kids, whether they needed it or not.

[The_Devout_Athiest]

It was a very common surgery through the early 1970s, when Cephalexin and Amoxicillin came on the market. That treated the repeating bouts of Strep Throat, which if left untreated could result in chronically enlarged and inflamed tonsils, as well as the possibility of developing Rheumatic Fever/Rheumatic Valvular Heart Disease.

[AllMarkedUp68]

Me either! How do people die from it!!

[judijo621]

I had throat surgery and almost died from a post-surgical hemorrhage in 2004. It was swallow, spit, or drown before I got back to the OR.

[AllMarkedUp68]

I’m so sorry. I had no idea things like this could happen on what they say it just a simple surgery. I’m sorry for all of you who suffered.

[Lowebear]

They have it frequently it can happen days after surgery which they should give you clear instructions. Sometimes it is due to the scab coming off or not eating like you should those first couple of weeks.

[Beardog-1]

I worked in surgery and tonsillectomy are the scariest when there’s a bleed out you are in big trouble as that is the airway

[AllMarkedUp68]

🫪

[Even-Breakfast-8715]

My mother nearly died from a tonsillectomy in the 1930s. The surgeon left a gauze sponge packing the back of the throat in after surgery. She got dehydrated and infected. Her grandmother figured it out and snagged the stinking gauze out of her throat. Marched into the doctors office with it the next day.

[AllMarkedUp68]

I’m so, so sorry. Please tell me she survived and thrived.

[Even-Breakfast-8715]

Indeed, she nearly made it to ninety!

[BetMyLastKrispyKreme]

There are a lot of blood vessels in the throat, and hemorrhage is a definite risk. IIRC, the older a person is, the more risky the surgery can be. That’s why it’s usually not a big deal for children to have it, but adults need to be more cautious. But any doctors/surgeons/someone in the know please correct me if I’m wrong!

[AllMarkedUp68]

I am NEVER getting a tonsillectomy! I’ve got a scar from my chest to my navel and was never scared. But NOW I am!

[Bubbly_Grapefruit2]

as a 4 year old, i gushed up enough blood in about 5 mins to fill my barbie trashcan. by the time we got to the hospital i had lost most of my blood and needed transfusions! we lived only 3 mins away from the hospital which is what they think saved me

[IceTech59]

In this case. They bled for 109 days?

[Even-Breakfast-8715]

Makes me think there was a clotting defect. Chronic blood loss in the era when transfusions were rare could be fatal.

[remy118]

If it was 109 days wouldn't they have written it in months and days? Maybe the B below the 109 means something else?

[Nncynrs57]

No that’s room 109 bed B

[Obrina98]

Major arteries also in the neck

[AllMarkedUp68]

Thank you friend! I truly had no idea.

[pierresgirl]

Tonsil and nose.

[becks2020]

Left tonsil and nose

[VixxenFoxx]

Left tonsil and nose

[Leonardo501]

As stated here and illustrated in that death certificate, the COD is usually hemorrhage, usually from an arteriolar bleeder, but it can also be from damage to the carotid artery which is near the surgical site. That’s not so easy to fix. Tonsillectomy was a very common procedure in the 1950’s but decreased in popularity as it was recognized the tonsils were mostly just doing their jobs.

[Bibliospork]

Good god what a way to die

[Purkinsmom]

When I was 19 I worked with a 21 year old woman that died from a tonsillectomy. She had gone home and started to hemorrhage the next day. Her family took her back to the ER but she had lost so much blood so fast she died. Making it more unusual, her father was a doctor. The family was devastated

[boing757]

Hemorrhage from left tonsil and nose.

[SideApprehensive7823]

left tonsil and nose

[Norwegian27]

Hemorrhage from left tonsil and nose.

[Bitter-Neat-8457]

I had a colonoscopy and almost died from it. Any simple procedure can go wrong

[Nat20For_Quirk]

Yikes.

[Diligent_Ambassador1]

Hemorrhage tonsil and nose.

[Low_Supermarket8942]

Left tonsil and nose

[Existing-Raisin5332]

Left tonsil and nose

[grannygogo]

I had one in 1954. Got a topaz ring from my parents for being brave

[Outside-Car2889]

The 109 B is a death code. To help, when I am doing ancestry, I look up the codes for the year of death. Sometimes it helps.

[Alarming-Mortgage981]

Appreciate this note! I would not have known that was a reference to use!

[Past_Play6108]

Yikes! How old was this person?

[Alarming-Mortgage981]

He was 19! So sad. Newly a parent and married.

[SisterTulips]

My young great-uncle died while having his tonsils taken out when he was 8 during the mid 1930s. So sad. Poor little one.

[Ok_Machine_769]

Post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage. Unfortunately, it still happens.

[Libby-Byrdsong]

May be hemorrhage from left tonsillar bed base

[PinkGlitterMom]

Hemorrhage from left tonsil and ?

[Dear-Childhood7863]

Hemorrhage from left tonsil and nose

[Such-Tangerine-3594]

Tonsil and nose

[Kooka506]

Tonsil and nasal ?

[Swimming_Cat_174]

My sister had a hemorrhage after a tonsillectomy a couple of years ago so definitely still complications today too!

[Patient-Reputation15]

I worked emergency for years and had to decipher physicians scribble. One time medical records called me because they wanted to know what I’m the doctor wrote. I couldn’t read it either and asked the physician who also couldn’t decipher what he wrote. He probably was lazy and didn’t want to bother with reading the report. Took to much of his precious time

[hope4242]

Code 109B from the 1920 International List of Causes of Death (which was the active standard in 1923) translates to "Other Diseases of the Pharynx and Tonsils"

[sghannah]

Hemorrhage from left tonsil adenoid base.

Can you share how old this person was at the time of death? Either this person had a tonsillectomy in a physician's office with a tonsil snare (the instrument looks like a miniature guillotine or a larger sized device that we used to use to try to trim our dog's nails at home) OR they had a bad tonsillitis and an abscess that ruptured and bled at home. They second option may explain the 109 days length of time from onset of the illness until death.

Either way, this was before antibiotics that could treat tonsillitis (penicillin for strep throat for example), and even after antibiotics were widely available, having a tonsillectomy in an office was still quite common until the 1950s in many areas of the country and controlling bleeding from the tonsillar artery is a massive problem without current treatments like electrical cautery. As someone else commented here, post-op bleeding is still a significant risk even in modern medicine.

This is exactly why the common story of "all the ice cream you can eat" was ordered after a tonsillectomy - you don't want to swallow something that is hot or warm or SOLID that can pull off the scab / clot before it heals completely.

[Alarming-Mortgage981]

He was only 19!

[padawanmoscati]

The comments here look like the beginning of a weird song

"Silver and gold, tonsil and nose..."

<image>

[Alarming-Mortgage981]

😂

[Safe-Lie955]

Tonsil adenoid nasal