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Congestion Of The Lungs

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Barmaid | 10:55 Thu 27th Dec 2012 | Body & Soul
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A relative died in 1880 aged 15 of "congestion of the lungs" - what is this likely to be? I was thinking either pneumonia or tuberculosis. Any ideas, please?
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In all likelihood pulmonary edema.
Or maybe pleurisy
tuberculosis was more likely I would say.
Probably fluid in the lungs (edema) caused by heart disease or pneumonia. I would have thought that if it was TB it would have said "consumption of the lungs"
left sided heart failure causing pulmonary oedema
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Ta. Would heart failure have been likely in a 15 year old though?

Although I suppose there could have been something congenital. An older brother died aged 6 from phthisis.
Congestion of the lungs in a 15year old sound infective to me.......bronchpneumonia or pneumonia.
phthsis is TB.

No, in a 15 year old heart failure would be unlikely.
how about secondary to rheumatic fever that was more common back then I think
Or all of the above. Or asthma and all of the aforesaid.
The diagnoses you come across are not medical - they are usually observed symptoms described in widely varying language. One man's congestion is another man's consumption.
Even when post-mortems take place the limits of forensics were quite narrow and so unless it was staringly obvious the cause of death can still be annoyingly vague.
I had a relative die in 1911 aged 15 of "galloping consumption" also known as TB
My Grandfather died in 1906 on his death certificate it states Galloping Consumption.... also known as TB.

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