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Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis |
Unlike Roentgen (x-ray) and Singer (sewing machine) whose innovative contributions were quickly appreciated and utilized by others the insight and understanding of Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis were never, during his lifetime, adopted by his colleagues. He died a broken man and was buried in a pauper's grave. Semmelweis was educated at the universities of Pest and Vienna and was awarded his medical doctorate from the university of Vienna in 1844. As an obstetrician in Vienna he noted that 25-30% of women giving birth in the hospital were dying of a condition being referred to as "childbirth, (puerperal) fever." It was standard practice in those days for physicians to go directly from the autopsy rooms to the delivery suite. Semmelweis came to understand that some agent was being transmitted in this process which was the cause of the infection. His scientific study and subsequent publications clearly demonstrated that if physicians were to wash their hands after leaving the autopsy room a dramatic decrease in death due to puerperal fever was possible. Because of the prevailing medical thought that puerperal fever was unpreventable he was at odds with the medical community and suffered painful humiliation. Although his tormenters won in the short term other physicians, specifically Rudolf Virchow , the "father" of the germ theory of disease built on the Semmelweis knowledge stream. The control of disease has been considered to be the single most significant advance by mankind of the 20th century. All Semmelweis wanted was for his colleagues to wash their hands. He never, during his lifetime, achieved this goal. |
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