"Ignaz Semmelweis Saved Lives: Wash Your Hands"

Question

by Dr. Howard Markel

In the mid-19th century, about five women in 1,000 died in deliveries performed by midwives or at home. Yet when doctors working in the best maternity hospitals in Europe and America performed deliveries, the maternal death rate was often 10 to 20 times greater. The cause was, invariably, childbed fever. And a miserable end it was: raging fevers, putrid pus emanating from the birth canal, painful abscesses in the abdomen and chest, and an irreversible descent into an absolute hell of sepsis and death—all within 24 hours of the baby’s birth.

The reason seems readily apparent today, if not back then. Medical students and their professors at the elite teaching hospitals of this era typically began their day performing barehanded autopsies on the women who had died the day before of childbed fever. They then proceeded to the wards to examine the laboring women about to deliver their babies.

Dr. Semmelweis was brilliant but had two strikes against him when applying for a position at the Vienna General Hospital in 1846: he was Hungarian and Jewish. Medicine and surgery were considered to be the premier specialties in Vienna but because of his background and religion Semmelweis was relegated to running the less desirable division of obstetrics. Nevertheless, his claim to immortality was the result of an obsession with finding the means to end the childbed fever epidemics that were killing nearly a third of his patients. (The hospital ward run by midwives, without autopsy duties, had far better outcomes with their deliveries.)
Use the passage to answer the question.

Which details describe evidence that led Dr. Semmelweis to conclude that childbed fever could be prevented with handwashing? Select the two correct answers.

(1 point)
Responses

Dr. Semmelweis, being both Hungarian and Jewish, was relegated to running the obstetrics division of the hospital.
Dr. Semmelweis, being both Hungarian and Jewish, was relegated to running the obstetrics division of the hospital.

Dr. Semmelweis was obsessed with finding the cause of an illness that was taking the lives of nearly a third of his patients.
Dr. Semmelweis was obsessed with finding the cause of an illness that was taking the lives of nearly a third of his patients.

Doctors at the hospital performed autopsies on women who had died in childbirth and then examined laboring women.
Doctors at the hospital performed autopsies on women who had died in childbirth and then examined laboring women.

Far fewer women died during home and midwife births than during hospital births.
Far fewer women died during home and midwife births than during hospital births.

Childbed fever caused terrible suffering that led to death within the first day after giving birth.
Childbed fever caused terrible suffering that led to death within the first day after giving birth.

Answer 1

The two correct answers that describe evidence leading Dr. Semmelweis to conclude that childbed fever could be prevented with handwashing are:

1. Doctors at the hospital performed autopsies on women who had died in childbirth and then examined laboring women.
2. Far fewer women died during home and midwife births than during hospital births.

These details indicate the connection between the practices of the doctors and the increased incidence of childbed fever in hospital settings compared to midwife-assisted births.