When my great-grandmother was a child, around 9 yrs old or so, her appendix burst and she had to be hospitalized.

This was pre-Depression Nowhere, Oklahoma I can't imagine the medical care was great. After she was admitted her condition worsened to the point she was on death's door. Very sick.

Days this went on and the entire time they refused her water. After awhile water was all she could think of but they wouldn't give her any for whatever reason. Night after night she lay alone, writhing in pain and quite literally dying of thirst.

Until one night she snuck out of bed, crawled down the hall to a fountain and gulped until her stomach nearly burst.

She wrote of all this, in her memoirs.

The next morning her condition was greatly improved. "A miracle!!" they cried as they marveled. Within days she was released, fully recovered.

It's absolutely crazy to me to think, I might not be here, my father, my uncles, hell my own kids, might never have existed, if a little girl back in 1920's Oklahoma didn't ignore bad medical advice and listen to her own body.