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Virginia Apgar trained as a surgeon, but in the 1930s her department chair steered women away from the operating theatre. She turned to anaesthesia — and in 1952 devised the Apgar score, the quick newborn check still used around the world.

Virginia Apgar, 1952

HealthScienceBiography

Why it matters

The idea in context

The score grades a baby's colour, pulse, reflexes, muscle tone and breathing at one and five minutes old — a sixty-second habit that redirected attention to newborns in their most dangerous hour and helped drive infant mortality down. Apgar became Columbia's first female full professor of medicine, and liked to say that nobody, but nobody, was going to stop breathing on her. The detour she never chose became the career that mattered.

Türkçe

Aynı kart, başka bir dilde.

Virginia Apgar cerrah olarak yetişti; ama 1930'larda bölüm başkanı kadınları ameliyathaneden uzağa yönlendirdi. O da anesteziye döndü — ve 1952'de, bugün hâlâ dünyanın her yerinde kullanılan hızlı yenidoğan testi Apgar skorunu geliştirdi.
Virginia Apgar, 1952

Skor; bebeğin rengini, nabzını, reflekslerini, kas gerimini ve solunumunu doğumun birinci ve beşinci dakikalarında notlar — yenidoğanların en tehlikeli saatine dikkati çeviren ve bebek ölümlerinin düşmesine yardım eden altmış saniyelik bir alışkanlık. Apgar, Columbia'nın ilk kadın tıp profesörü oldu ve kimsenin, ama hiç kimsenin kendi gözetiminde nefessiz kalamayacağını söylemeyi severdi. Hiç seçmediği sapak, asıl önemli kariyeri oldu.

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