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In 1847 Ignaz Semmelweis worked out that doctors were carrying death from the mortuary to the maternity ward on their hands. Washing them cut deaths tenfold. His colleagues rejected the idea, and he died in an asylum.

Ignaz Semmelweis (1818–1865)

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Why it matters

The idea in context

At the Vienna General Hospital, the ward staffed by doctors had a death rate several times that of the ward staffed by midwives. Semmelweis noticed the doctors came straight from performing autopsies, ordered handwashing in chlorinated lime, and watched mortality collapse. He could not explain why it worked — germ theory was still years away — and the profession took the implication, that they were the cause, as an insult. He was dismissed, declined, and died at 47 of an infection. Lister and Pasteur proved him right within two decades.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

1847'de Ignaz Semmelweis, doktorların ölümü morgdan doğum servisine elleriyle taşıdığını çözdü. Ellerin yıkanması ölümleri on kat azalttı. Meslektaşları fikri reddetti ve o bir akıl hastanesinde öldü.
Ignaz Semmelweis (1818-1865)

Viyana Genel Hastanesi'nde doktorların çalıştığı serviste ölüm oranı, ebelerin çalıştığı servisin birkaç katıydı. Semmelweis doktorların doğrudan otopsiden geldiğini fark etti, klorlu kireçle el yıkamayı emretti ve ölüm oranının çöküşünü izledi. Neden işe yaradığını açıklayamıyordu — mikrop kuramına daha yıllar vardı — ve meslek, nedenin kendileri olduğu imasını hakaret saydı. İşten çıkarıldı, çöktü ve 47 yaşında bir enfeksiyondan öldü. Lister ve Pasteur, yirmi yıl içinde onu haklı çıkardı.

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Background reading: Ignaz SemmelweisAttribution and context are revised when stronger evidence appears. Corrections are welcome through the editorial page.
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