Source: This is the United States
There was a hot question on the US forum Reddit: Who do you think is the unknown but indispensable person in history?
Of all the answers, one name came first with more than 7,000 votes, and he was Semmelweis Ignaz Semmelweis.
And his story has to start with the strange two delivery rooms in a hospital in Werner...
In 1845, Semmelweis, a Hungarian boy who had just obtained a doctorate in medicine from the University of Vienna, came to work in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the General Hospital in Vienna, Austria.
It was one of the oldest hospitals in Europe at the time, and the obstetrics and gynecology department he went to was also the largest obstetric outpatient clinic in the world at that time.
But at that time, there was a disease called "puerperal fever", which caused postpartum women to suffer and even lose their lives...
But all the doctors are helpless against this disease, because everyone is not even sure who the "invisible killer" hiding behind it is.
Doctors have also made a lot of speculations: the personal constitution of pregnant women, the weather, and even the location of the planets...
Just when everyone was at a loss and could only let this "invisible killer" run rampant, this young doctor who had just arrived, Semmelweis, found a "strange" phenomenon:
At that time, the hospital's obstetrics department was divided into two wards, the first delivery room and the second delivery room.
Since the first delivery room also undertakes the task of providing medical teaching, it is mainly the responsibility of the doctor, while the second delivery room is mainly the responsibility of the ordinary midwife.
It is reasonable to say that the doctor's knowledge and medical level are much higher than those of ordinary midwives.
In fact, however, the mortality rate in the first delivery room is much higher than in the second delivery room, which is run by a midwife.
At that time, because the reputation of the first delivery room was really bad, many women would plead with them to go to the second delivery room before giving birth...
According to statistics, from 1841 to 1846, the six years of women who lost their lives due to puerperal fever had 1989 people in the first delivery room and 691 people in the second delivery room, a total of 2680 people.
This perverse figure caught Semmelweis's attention, but he could not figure out the specific logic for a moment until an accident occurred:
In 1847, Semmelweis's good friend and colleague Jakob Kolletschka, a professor of forensic science, died when he accidentally cut his finger with a scalpel while performing a pathological autopsy.
And his symptoms before his death were strikingly similar to those of women who died of puerperal fever, so a bold guess immediately appeared in Semmelweis's mind:
The culprit of puerperal fever is the doctor's hands.
Photo: "Under the Shadowless Lamp"
It turns out that medical students often go to dissect and study the mother who died the day before, and then go directly to the delivery room to check on the delivery of the mother.
In the middle of these two steps, they didn't wash their hands, at least not seriously.
Then, when the doctor was operating on the patient and disassembling the bandage, a substance was transmitted in the process and then entered the patient's body, although at the time he was not sure what the substance was.
We can see from some of the 19th-century oil paintings that the surgeons at that time were wearing the most popular and decent tuxedos at that time.
Therefore, Semmelweis proposed that doctors should wash their hands carefully with bleach powder before surgery.
Can you save your life by simply washing your hands?
How could the high-ranking doctors at that time see Semmelweis's simple theory?
As a result, Semmelweis was ridiculed and criticized in a frenzied manner at the time.
Cartoon/@Veinity Fair
-Semmelweis says you should wash your hands first so that you can avoid the onset and death of puerperal fever.
-Wash your hands? It's ridiculous! I'm not dirty, I'm a gentleman.
Gentleman do you understand!!
You pick up the autopsy in the back, I have to go to deliver the baby.
In desperation, in 1850, he was forced to leave Austria and return to his hometown of Hungary.
At a hospital here, he was still adhering to his "handwashing principle", and soon the death rate from puerperal fever here dropped to about 1%.
Later, he wrote his experience into the book "Pathogens, Symptoms and Prevention of Puerperal Fever".
He also sent the book to the most prestigious obstetricians in Europe at the time, either by sinking into the sea or by frantic questioning and opposition.
Later, Semmelweis became angry under the pressure of questioning and various repressions, and many people, including his wife, believed that he had lost his mind, and eventually he was sent to a mental hospital by his family.
In 1865, at the age of 47, he died depressed in an insane asylum.
In 1881, a bacterium was first found in the lochia of women, which was later named Streptococcus, and it was this bacterium that caused many women to lose their lives.
The documentary "Under the Shadowless Lamp" (formerly known as "Two Hundred Years of Surgery") records this history and says,
"It was only then that Semmelweis, who had spent his life calling for handwashing and disinfection, regained his attention."
In budapest, the capital of today's Hungary, there is such a statue:
A standing man is surrounded by a group of innocent and cute children and a woman holding a child.
As you may have guessed, the statue is called the "Saviour of Mothers" in honor of Semmelweis.
In his memory, he saved countless lives in three words:
“Wash your hands.”
In fact, the progress and promotion of science is not an easy process in itself.
This history has happened a hundred years ago, but an obscure person has done a great thing, and their efforts are all in an effort to make the world a better place, which is still remembered by us today and has a great impact on our lives.
Now that we have entered 2022, but the challenges brought to us by the epidemic are still continuing, all we can do is to respect science, wear masks, and wash our hands well, in order to overcome the current difficulties and live up to the efforts of our predecessors.