In 1840 Vienna was a...
Illustration
In 1840 Vienna was a place where a lot of medical research was done. Although the best treatment in the world was given there, one out of six women who gave birth later died.
In April of 1847 Dr. Inges Semmelweis, head of obstetrics at one of the leading hospitals of the city, was reading his Bible and made a great discovery. He read the Bible's injunctions about handling the dead, and then it clicked with him. The physicians almost always went directly from the morgue when they arrived at the hospital. They went from there to do their rounds.
Dr. Semmelweis ordered all of his physicians to do one simple thing that he had picked up from reading Leviticus and the deaths of mothers dropped from 57 per year to two. He simply told them to wash their hands.
In spite of the incredible results, the other physicians scorned Semmelweis and raised such a bother that when his contract with the hospital expired, they refused to rehire him. After he left the doctors went back to business as usual and the death rate soared again.
Dr. Semmelweis was so tormented by their rejection that he died in a mental hospital, though 40 years later his theories were confirmed as true.
-- Piazza
In April of 1847 Dr. Inges Semmelweis, head of obstetrics at one of the leading hospitals of the city, was reading his Bible and made a great discovery. He read the Bible's injunctions about handling the dead, and then it clicked with him. The physicians almost always went directly from the morgue when they arrived at the hospital. They went from there to do their rounds.
Dr. Semmelweis ordered all of his physicians to do one simple thing that he had picked up from reading Leviticus and the deaths of mothers dropped from 57 per year to two. He simply told them to wash their hands.
In spite of the incredible results, the other physicians scorned Semmelweis and raised such a bother that when his contract with the hospital expired, they refused to rehire him. After he left the doctors went back to business as usual and the death rate soared again.
Dr. Semmelweis was so tormented by their rejection that he died in a mental hospital, though 40 years later his theories were confirmed as true.
-- Piazza
