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by pyre 4777 days ago

  | she could do somewhat better than the locals
I get what you're saying, but I think that 'somewhat better' is an understatement. Obviously she's not going to be performing heart transplants and bi-pass surgeries, but just knowing about things like penicillin, would be huge (not to mention knowledge of things like disease vectors, etc).
1 comments

I would actually say "she probably knows less than the locals and can do much less than the locals".

I studied Medicine for two years, and was surprised by how much advanced and knowledgeable our ancestors were.

Pharaons did brain surgery to remove cancer tumors a thousands years back successfully. This alone, shows the degree of sophistication and technology they had.

Now I'm not saying before is better, but today we rely a lot on technology (IRM, Radiology, Echography...) that we don't keep much of the details and don't even need to learn them.

Well, then depends on the part of the world and the period. I was assuming 15th century Europe, which is a different story. Also, things like penicillin have a much broader affect than removing a couple of brain tumors. On the other hand, advanced knowledge could be called witchcraft, and she could be burned at the stake.