Today I would like to talk about Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis. In a nutshell, here's what you need to know:- He was born in 1818 in Hungary.- While working at the Central Vienna Hospital, he reduced the mortality rate of women in childbirth to less than 1% (in Europe at that time, hospital-acquired epidemics of childbed fever claimed the lives of up to 60% of patients and their children).- But even with such a solid argument, he was unable to convince his colleagues to wash their hands and clean their nails. They ridiculed him and categorically refused to listen.- Realizing that he could save many women and children from suffering and death, but seeing the impenetrability of the scientific community, the doctor was stressed and very worried. It is understandable that it is difficult not to fall into depression, realizing that he himself had only recently started washing his hands before contact with patients. He wrote: “Only God knows how many women I sent to their graves before their time with my own hands.”- As if that weren't enough, in 1865, the 47-year-old Semmelweis was beaten for two weeks by staff at a psychiatric hospital until he died. He had been admitted to the hospital under false pretenses and without his consent. His experiment with criminal hand washing was shut down, which immediately increased the mortality rate in the clinic several times over.More details about this can be found here. It's hard to read. After reading such texts, it is more difficult to calmly accept arguments such as, “There couldn't have been any witch hunts in Europe! They had a high level of culture and humanity for many centuries!” Yes, culture and science were also developed, of course. But specialists were not ready to deviate from the dogmas accepted in medicine at that time.Fortunately, Karl Meyrhofer, who was studying the causes of childbed fever, soon came to the same conclusions as Semmelweis. It was easier for him to prove something because microscopes were already available, which made it possible to see the smallest particles in decaying tissues. Moreover, experiments on animals showed that the entry of such particles into the body causes blood poisoning. Unfortunately, even this was not enough to convince his colleagues. Mayrhofer published a study showing that postpartum fever was caused by particles carried on the hands of doctors and students (often after working in the morgue or with patients with purulent infections). After that, he was no longer allowed to publish, and at the insistence of his boss, the clinic did not renew his contract.Later, they figured it out and erected monuments across the planet to such people who sacrificed themselves to save the lives of children and women. But how many were killed and demoralized by the disregard for facts and reasoning!
