Terry O'Reilly

He applied for teaching positions at other hospitals, but was denied.

He applied for grants to further investigate his theory, but was turned down over and over again.

Then, he was socially shunned.

Women continued to die at the Vienna hospital, and it enraged Semmelweis.

He began writing heated letters to prominent doctors and medical journals.

They called him unbalanced and crazy.

the ridicule began to take a toll on his mental health.

His wife and best friend schemed to take him on a tour of a new medical facility, but it was really an insane asylum.

When Semmelweis realized what was happening, he put up a fight, was beaten by orderlies, sustaining cuts and bruises, and was put into a dirty straitjacket.

His wounds became infected, and two weeks later, Semmelweis, the father of infection control, died of sepsis, the very infection that had been taking the lives of women at the Vienna hospital.

It is a remarkable story that Semmelweis was so mocked and ridiculed and shunned, and all he wanted doctors to do was wash their hands.

That's it.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Today, Semmelweis is revered in the medical world.

Hospitals and universities have been named after him.

Ignaz Semmelweis relied on his instincts, and with instincts, you know before you know why.

He was two decades ahead of medical theory, but he was right all along.

There is one more thing named for him, the Semmelweis reflex.

It refers to the propensity to reject new ideas if they challenge established theories, even if the evidence is compelling.

When we come back, the surprising links between Bond and the Beatles.