The Doctors' Plague: Germs, Childbed Fever, and the Strange Story of Ignac Semmelweis (Great Discoveries)
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.19 (567 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 039332625X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 208 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-03-26 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Ignác Semmelweis is remembered for the now-commonplace notion that doctors must wash their hands before examining patients. "Riveting" (Houston Chronicle), "captivating" (Discover), and "compulsively readable" (San Francisco Chronicle). Surgeon, scholar, best-selling author, Sherwin B. Nuland tells the strange story of Ignác Semmelweis with urgency and the insight gained from his own studies and clinical experience. With deaths from childbed fever exploding, Semmelweis discovered that doctors themselves were spreading the disease. While his simple reforms worked immediatelychildbed fever in Vienna all but disappearedthey brought down upon Semmelweis the wrath of the establishment, and led to his tragic end.. In mid-nineteenth-century Vienna, however, this was a subversive idea
Kelly L. Norman said The Curse of Character. In a short, readable volume, Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D. has succeeded in telling the story of a brilliant man whose findings changed medical science completely, and might have helped those changes take place much earlier but for his inability to get along with his peers and elders.True, the blame for childbed fever continuing at the Allgemeine Krankenhaus in Vienna where he worked and studied should not fall solely on Ignác Semmelweis' shoulders. Arrogance on the part of others, as well as pol. Peggy Vincent said The Cry and the Covenant redux. Childbed fever (puerperal sepsis) was the scourge of pregnant women in the middle of the 19th century. Germs hadn't been discovered yet, and the idea of washing their hands between doing an autopsy and delivering a baby was anathema to physicians, who strongly resented the implication that they were in any way `dirty,' or that they themselves were the cause of the deaths of between "The Cry and the Covenant redux" according to Peggy Vincent. Childbed fever (puerperal sepsis) was the scourge of pregnant women in the middle of the 19th century. Germs hadn't been discovered yet, and the idea of washing their hands between doing an autopsy and delivering a baby was anathema to physicians, who strongly resented the implication that they were in any way `dirty,' or that they themselves were the cause of the deaths of between 20-50% of women under their care. Ignaz Semmelweis, an unknown Hungarian obstetrician, concluded that a procedure as . 0-50% of women under their care. Ignaz Semmelweis, an unknown Hungarian obstetrician, concluded that a procedure as . "The Cry and the Covenant redux" according to Peggy Vincent. Childbed fever (puerperal sepsis) was the scourge of pregnant women in the middle of the 19th century. Germs hadn't been discovered yet, and the idea of washing their hands between doing an autopsy and delivering a baby was anathema to physicians, who strongly resented the implication that they were in any way `dirty,' or that they themselves were the cause of the deaths of between 20-50% of women under their care. Ignaz Semmelweis, an unknown Hungarian obstetrician, concluded that a procedure as
Semmelweis's doctrine was controversial in medical circles, Nuland explains, partly because the eccentric physician's self-destructive personality alienated possible supporters. Bestselling author Nuland (How We Die), a clinical professor of surgery at Yale, details in lively descriptive writing just how Ignac Semmelweis, an assistant physician at Allgemeine Krankenhaus, uncovered the origin of this devastating epidemic. He was committed to a public mental institution and, according to Nuland, probably suffered from Alzheimer's and died from beatings administered by hospital personnel. Although theories were advanced that attributed it to unhealthy conditions in the expectant mother's body, Semmelweis launched his own investigation. . In this engrossing story, Nuland shows how Semmelweis's groundbreaking discovery of how childbed fever was transmitted was later validated by the work of Louis Paste