|
||
Chris Snuggs: "Was Mary infected by a doctor?"
"Ignaz Semmelweiss, a physician from Vienna, contributed to a significant discovery about sepsis in the 1800s. He worked on a maternity ward where he noticed that there was a high rate of death from childbed fever, also known as puerperal sepsis. He also noted that women whose deliveries were assisted by midwives had a significantly lower rates of infection than those who were assisted by doctors. Doctors who had just been doing surgeries on other patients and then switched to delivering babies because… “a gentleman’s hands are clean.”
After a colleague died from an infection acquired from an autopsy, Semmelweiss concluded that there was a connection between puerperal sepsis and the doctors who performed autopsies and immediately delivered babies. He instituted a hand washing policy. Even though the rates of puerperal sepsis reduced to below 3% as a result, he was heavily criticized by his medical colleagues of the time." Caroline Whiteside: "Puerperal sepsis struck earlier I think. Delphine was old enough for it not to have been the problem. Mary cut her hand on a dirty knife." Chris Snuggs: "Good point ..... I wonder if by 1900 or so people understood the importance of thoroughly washing a wound?" Caroline Whiteside: "Very few I expect." LINK: Lister and the understanding of infection: an incredible story ... |