The Hungarian Obstetrician Who Proved Doctors Were Killing Mothers and Was Driven to an Asylum for Saying So
Ignaz Semmelweis demonstrated in 1847 that the catastrophic maternal mortality of the Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetric Clinic was caused by doctors arriving from the dissection room with unwashed hands. Handwashing in chlorinated lime substantially eliminated the mortality. The European medical establishment rejected the finding. Semmelweis was committed to an asylum and beaten to death there in 1865.
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