Ignaz Semmelweis

Ignaz Semmelweis is often referred to as “the savior of mothers” or “the father of handwashing.” In 1846, he was an Obstetrics doctor at The General Hospital in Vienna, Austria. He was concerned about the high rate of mothers dying of what was often called “childbed fever” after giving birth and set out to determine why.There were two hospital wards he studied. One was staffed by doctors and medical students, and one was staffed by midwives. The rate of death in the ward staffed by doctors and medical students was much higher than in the ward staffed by midwives. What could the reason be?He hypothesized a few possible causes but did not find anything that changed the death rate of his patients. Eventually, a colleague nicked his finger while performing an autopsy on a deceased mother and died the same terrible death the mothers were suffering. This was the answer! Midwives did not perform any medical duties besides birth delivery, while the doctors did.Semmelweis decided some poisonous odor or death particles were being transferred to live mothers by doctors who had performed autopsies. By 1847, he was insisting doctors cleanse their hands and instruments in a chlorinated lime solution after they performed autopsies and before doing their rounds to deliver babies. The incidence of death from “childbed fever” dropped drastically in the doctors’ ward to a rate in line with the midwives’ ward.Despite these positive results, his contemporaries resisted washing their hands as Semmelweis insisted. Semmelweis ultimately lost his job. He continued to urge doctors to cleanse their hands and instruments. In 1861, he finally published his findings at length.He was eventually committed to an asylum in 1865, where he shortly thereafter died of sepsis. Though he didn’t have all of the answers and theories correct, his important work has been given its due respect in the 155 years since his death.