This doctor told the world for the first time importance of HW

It may sound strange, but there was a time when it was not considered good to take a sick person to the hospital. Hospitals of the 19th century used to be centers of spread of infection. In these hospitals, sick and dying people received only basic facilities. In those times, getting treatment at home was a better option. There used to be three to five times more deaths in hospitals compared to treatment at home.

house of death

Hospitals were filled with the stench of urine, vomit and other wastes. This foul smell used to be so bad that the hospital staff used to press handkerchiefs on their noses. Doctors also neither washed their hands nor cleaned their instruments. Operating rooms and the surgeons working in them used to be equally dirty. Because of all this, hospitals came to be known as the houses of death. At that time, people did not know anything about germs, yet a person used scientific methods to prevent infection. A Hungarian doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis implemented hand-washing in Vienna in 1840, which reduced deaths in the maternity ward. This was an important effort but was not successful because the doctor's colleagues did not support him. But by then Ignaz had become known as a doctor who saved mothers giving birth to newborn children.

pathogens were not identified

Semmelweis then worked at the Vienna General Hospital. In that hospital too, like other hospitals, patients died regularly. The world did not know about germs in the 19th century, at that time doctors were not ready to believe that infection spread due to the filth of hospitals. Baron H. Lerner, an expert in the history of medicine at New York University, told the BBC: "It is very difficult to imagine a world in which we did not know anything about the existence of germs and bacteria.""In the mid-19th century, diseases were believed to be spread by poisonous vapors containing harmful particles."

biggest imbalance

At that time, mothers giving birth to newborns were at the highest risk of getting infected, especially those mothers who required caesarean section for delivery. The wounds caused by this used to be a favorite destination for the bacteria that doctors and surgeons carried with them. Semmelweis was the first to notice the difference in deaths between two maternity centers with similar facilities at the Vienna General Hospital. In one centre, the responsibility of care was entrusted to male medical students while in the other center the responsibility of care was entrusted to midwives. In the center where male medical students were responsible, there were 98.4 deaths per 1000 births in 1847, while in the other maternity center it was only 36.2 per 1000 births. The reason for this imbalance was said to be that male medical students behaved more rudely with their patients.

cause of deaths

Due to the rough care taken by male medical students, it was believed that women developed fever and got infection in the uterus, due to which almost all the cases of deaths of mothers giving birth to newborn babies in the hospital occurred. Were coming forward. Semmelweis was not satisfied with the official explanation. In the same year, one of his colleagues also died. While conducting a post-mortem, the colleague's hand was cut, due to which he died. This accident gave Semmelweis a hint of understanding. In those times, cutting any part of the body was not only a physical risk but also fatal. Cutting any part of the body with a knife, no matter how delicate, could be dangerous forever, even if the person was an experienced physiologist. For example, Charles Darwin's uncle, also named Charles Darwin, died in 1778 from wounds sustained while dissection of a child. After the death of his colleague in Vienna, Semmelweis noticed that his colleague had the same symptoms as those seen in fever in women during childbirth. After this, the same question arose in his mind that do doctors bring the particles of dead bodies that came in contact with them during dissection to the delivery rooms? Semmelweis noticed that medical students kept leaving the post-mortem room and going straight to the delivery centers. At that time, no doctor or staff wore gloves, there was no other protective equipment, so it was common for medical students to get pieces of flesh or tissue stuck to their clothes while manipulating dead bodies.

curb deaths

Midwives did not have to do any examination with the dead body. Was this the key to the mystery that was haunting Semmelweis? There was no understanding about germs at that time, so it was very difficult to find a way to remove the filth of hospitals. Obstetrician James Y. Simpson (1811–1870) was the first physician to experiment with the anesthetic properties of chloroform on humans. He believed that if the infection spread due to filth could not be controlled, then from time to time the hospitals should be completely destroyed and rebuilt from scratch. John Erik Erikson, the most famous surgeon of the 19th century and author of The Science and Art of Surgery (1853), agreed, writing, "Once a hospital has become completely infected with bacteria from contaminated blood, it must by some means It would be like freeing a crumbling wall infested by ants or cleaning cheese from the insects in a piece of cheese."Semmelweis did not consider such drastic measures necessary. However, they had reached the conclusion that infected particles from dead bodies were the cause of fever in pregnant women. He got a basin installed in the hospital where a solution of lime containing chlorine was kept. It was necessary for the doctors going from the dissection room to the delivery room to clean themselves with this solution and wash their hands. In 1848, the number of deaths per 1000 deliveries in the wards cared for by medical students had dropped to 12.7.

got no respect

Despite this, Semmelweis was unable to convince his colleagues that fever in women during childbirth was related to the contamination caused by the dissection of dead bodies. People who tested their own methods often did not present things properly, due to which the results were not encouraging. Baron H. Lerner explains, "Notice what they were saying - even if they weren't saying it in those words, they were saying that med students were murdering women coming in for delivery, accepting it. It was very difficult. "In fact, the use of resistant soaps to prevent infection in maternity centers began in the 1880s.Semmelweis wrote a book on this subject, after which it received many negative reviews and he became angry at his critics. He started portraying doctors who did not wash their hands as murderers. After this, Semmelweis's contract at Vienna Hospital was not extended and he had to return to his country Hungary. After returning to Hungary, Semmelweis began working unpaid in the maternity ward of Szent Roks Hospital, a small hospital in Budapest. In this hospital and in the maternity clinic of Budapest University (where he later taught), the number of women suffering from fever during childbirth was very high, but Semmelweis eliminated it on his own.

But the criticism of his theory did not stop and on the other hand, Semmelweis's anger was increasing because his colleagues were reluctant to adopt his method.By 1861, his behavior became very erratic and four years later he was on the verge of being admitted to a mental asylum. One of his colleagues took him to a mental asylum in Vienna on the pretext of showing him a new medical institute.When Semmelweis realized that he was in a mental asylum, he tried to escape from there. In this attempt, he was beaten badly by the security guards there and after this he was tied in chains and put in a dark cell.

Two weeks later, Semmelweis died from infection in a wound on his right hand. He was only 47 years old. Semmelweis could not play any role in the changes that Louis Pasteur, Joseph Lister and Robert Koch brought about in medical science.Although Semmelweis's contribution is discussed now - in recent times, hand hygiene has been recognized and washing hands and keeping them clean has become the most important way to prevent infection in hospitals.