NPR: The Doctor Who Championed Hand-Washing And Briefly Saved Lives

[LiberalElite]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/01/12/375663920/the-doctor-who-championed-hand-washing-and-saved-women-s-lives

-snip-
This is the story of a man whose ideas could have saved a lot of lives and spared countless numbers of women and newborns' feverish and agonizing deaths.

You'll notice I said "could have."

The year was 1846, and our would-be hero was a Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis.
-snip-

I read about Semmelweis some time ago. Since then when I start thinking doctors know it all, I recall how he was ridiculed by his fellow physicians for his assertion that doctors should wash their hands between exams of patients.

[PumpkinAle]

1. I heard this the other day

really fascinating and quite sad.

Rec.

[LiberalElite]

2. Yes.

It's so taken for granted now. Disinfectant is everywhere now, made available for free. I see it in the supermarket and at my office in the conference rooms!

[Curmudgeoness]

3. This reminds me of a good book.

"Testimony of Two Men" by Taylor Caldwell. The new young doctor has to continue to challenge the old doctors about this same thing.

[LiberalElite]

4. I'm going to look that up in the library - thanks!

[niyad]

5. semmelweiss understood that the midwives knew what they were doing--another thing that

pissed off the male docs.

so the good doc ended up in an asylum and died of a beating 14 days later. how incredibly sad.

[niyad]

6. "witches, nurses and midwives" by barbara ehrenreich and deirdre english

http://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Barbara-Ehrenreich-and-Deirdre-English-Witches-Midwives-and-Nurses-A-History-of-Women-Healers.-Introduction..pdf