Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, father of Hand Washing
February 7, 2010
Sometimes the world just calls you. I have been soliciting input from people in my life for this Blog, and Jack Churchill suggested Ignaz. Then I am watching childrens TV and one of the cartoon characters was named Ignaz Semmelweis. SO he is my next entry even though I had never heard of him before… bbut I guess that the point of this Blog! Here is the beginning of his Wiki entry: Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis (July 1, 1818 – August 13, 1865) was a Hungarian physician described as the “savior of mothers”,[1] who discovered by 1847 that the incidence of puerperal fever could be drastically cut by the use of hand disinfection (by means of hand washing with chlorinated lime solution) in obstetrical clinics. He singlehandedly (what is the sound of one hand washing?) reduced mortality to below 1%, though no-one took him seriously until after his death when Pasteur confirmed the germ theory. Incidentally he died at age 47 after a nervous breakdown, presumably from not being listened to. Oh, when you go to Wikipedia, it also has this great image of him as a boy!
He was in great conflict with the prevailing ideology of the time that disease was the imbalance of the four humors and required bloodletting. He also was up against the ego of Doctors who felt that their social status precluded the concept that their hands could be considered unclean. He also pioneered sterilization of instruments. But the medical community so fought him that he fell into depression and despair and aged prematurely. A great man of science and a savior of women, so few know his name.
From deep in the heart of a moderate germ-a-phobe, thank you for this little bit on Dr. Semmelweis. He is my patron saint.
Oh, and although I can’t be 100 percent certain, I’d say his early death might have come, not from the stress of others who didn’t believe him, but more as a result of knowing what just might be crawling on your hands…
Cringing and loving you at the same time,
-Gigi
xxx
If I am not mistaken, Semmelweis died from an infection he received while working with new mothers.
Its unclear… his death is attributed to declining health, and here are some posulations:”It is impossible to appraise the nature of Semmelweis’s disorder. It may have been Alzheimer’s disease, a form of senile dementia, which is associated with rapid aging.[18]:270 It may have been third stage of syphilis, a then-common disease of obstetricians who examined thousands of women at gratis institutions.[6] Or it may have been emotional exhaustion from overwork and stress.” What is clear to me is that he had a lot of stress from his disenfranchisement from the established medical community and that had to take a toll on whatever his preset was!