The Doctor Who Asked Others to Wash Their Hands
Ignaz Semmelweis, Vienna General Hospital, 1847
In 1840s Vienna, women feared the hospital’s first maternity clinic, run by doctors and students, far more than the second, run by midwives. The doctors’ clinic had a much higher death rate from childbed fever, and nobody could explain why.
A stubborn difference in the data is an invitation to look closer.
When a colleague died after being cut during an autopsy, Ignaz Semmelweis noticed his symptoms resembled childbed fever. Doctors came to the wards straight from dissections. He ordered them to wash their hands in chlorinated lime, and deaths dropped sharply.
The cause can hide in the routine that nobody questions.
Discover the Rest of This Thought
The remaining cards of this series and the full in-depth essay are waiting for you in the Epigram app.