Question:
what european doctor foucnd the link between womening dying after giving birth &doctors not washing hands?
2008-02-07 04:04:08 UTC
Someone was telling me how it was a doctor in Europe (a history) who observed and found the reason why many women died after giving birth. Which was becuase the doctors were carrying around bacteria by not doing things like washing their hands. If you know who I am talking about. Can you tell me his name and what you know about the guy. thanks
Four answers:
greydoc6
2008-02-07 09:16:48 UTC
Ignac Fulop (Ignaz Philip) Semmelweis was the Hungarian physician who observed the link between hand washing and the prevention of childbed fever, aka puerperal sepsis. It was common practice for doctors in Vienna to go directly from the dissecting rooms to the delivery rooms without washing their hands. Women delivered by midwives or at non-teaching hospitals had a much better chance of survival. Hungarians physicians were akin to second class citizens in the minds of the haughty Viennese, so Semmelweis had a difficult time getting his message across.



Later, Louis Pasteur (He was not an MD) made a similar connection between hand washing and childbed fever. Although more successful than Semmelweis, he too had his doubters.



The surgeon Joseph Lister is more associated with antisepsis, killing germs with carbolic acid, rather than asepsis. He gave credit to Semmelweis for his discoveries.



A semi-fictionalized life of Semmelweis is in a novel called The Cry and the Covenant by Morton Thompson. An oldie but goodie.
nicky bimini
2008-02-07 12:16:40 UTC
Semmelweis
Chad
2008-02-07 04:14:13 UTC
Ignác Semmelweiss I think...

I think he was Hungarian...
olympics junkie
2008-02-07 07:19:43 UTC
I could be wrong, but I thought his name was Lister.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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