Survivable infectious diseases in 1911

[Mhillbilly]

My ancestors 1911 census record was a mystery for some time. 

My great grandparents are recorded in an Islington, London, England address but 2 children (3 and 1 years) noted as living are not present at that address.

The mystery was solved yesterday by the discovering of a 1911 census record for the two children at the Metropolitan Asylum Board's, North Western Hospital, Lawn Road, Hampstead.  The hospital no longer exists but the site is the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.

These were not rich people. Reading up on the Asylum's role it was an infectious diseases hospital originally for smallpox but by 1911 for the treatment of any infectious diseases (polio is mentioned) in the poor.

Can anyone help me identify what serious disease in 1911 got you into the hospital for free and was possible to have and survive.  My grandfather (the 3 year old) went on to live to age 76 and died in 1984 still looking for his sister, but she definitely was alive in 1915.

Thanks

[mckha489]

not 1911, but in 1935 my father was packed off to an infectious diseases isolation hospital because he had contracted scarlet fever,  while there he caught diphtheria from one of the other children,

So that’s two, but I would imagine any of the usual culprits, Where the child became particularly ill might result in admission, just as in the current measles epidemic some children are able to stay at home, but others require admission to hospital

[Ruskie]

Are there any surviving admissions records for the hospital? It would only be a matter of guessing what they may have been in hospital for unless you can find something concrete.

Were there other children living at home on census night? Were they older?

[Ruskie]

not 1911, but in 1935 my father was packed off to an infectious diseases isolation hospital because he had contracted scarlet fever,  while there he caught diphtheria from one of the other children,

That reminds me ... my grandmother and her siblings had scarlet fever in 1904. She survived but four of them died.

[avm228]

You’ll probably never know what it was, unless specific records survive.

In the spring of 1894 my gg-grandparents’ 4 children all became ill with diphtheria and were sent off to an isolation hospital. We have inherited some of their (very poignant) letters home to their parents.

Tragically, 3 of them died in the space of 3 weeks, and the only survivor (my g-grandmother) acquired lifelong heart damage which caused her early death in her 40s.

[jalrose]

My father (living in Bury 1911) was placed in total isolation for six weeks in Elton Hospital suffering from both scarlet fever and diphtheria at a young age. He was not allowed visitors and the ordeal left him fearful of hospitalisation for the remainder of his 83 years.   

[roopat]

My mother b1924 (from a very poor family) had a prolonged stay in hospital as a child with diphtheria. She only referred to it occasionally but it had obviously scarred her, particularly the separation from family. She lived to 79.

[Mhillbilly]

Thanks all for your comments
I do not need to know the actual disease because they both survived.  Although they were in a fever ward (there were 16 fever wards 350 patients mostly children) not the the isolation ward (one only 6 patients) 
As the comments showed they were lucky and my first thought was that for infectious diseases the survival rate was low.
I was surprised that they were taken from home but the comments seem to make this normal for the time.
Thanks again for the comments and we can all be thankful for the advances in medicine that make the majority of these diseases and events as you have described a thing of the past.
It also makes it equally senseless that some of the younger generation are rejecting vaccinations because of 'concerns' over the safety.
For me this topic is now complete
Thanks again.

Tony

[Andy_T]

"Can anyone help me identify what serious disease in 1911 got you into the hospital for free and was possible to have and survive?"

I think that in Edwardian times the workhouse sanatoriums were the main provider of free treatment to the poor whether it was an infectious disease like tuberculosis or another kind of illness like pneumonia.
I guess there were few free charitable hospitals available to provide an alternative to workhouse sanitariums.

Andy_T