Terry O'Reilly

Born in Hungary in 1818, Semmelweis grew up to become a doctor and was the chief obstetrician at the Vienna Hospital, the largest maternity hospital in the world at that time.

It had two large maternity clinics.

One was run by doctors, the other by midwives.

Over time, Semmelweis noticed an alarming statistic.

Five out of every 1,000 women died when delivery was performed by midwives, yet the death rate was 10 to 20 times higher when delivered by doctors.

It didn't make any sense.

The deaths were due to what was then called childbed fever.

It was a leading cause of death among women, second only to tuberculosis.

Semmelweis was determined to find the cause.

The doctors claimed the fever was related to lactation, therefore unpreventable.

Semmelweis didn't buy it.

He started to analyze every variable.

He wondered if bad air was being inadvertently piped into the doctor's clinic, but that wasn't the case.

In the midwife clinic, women gave birth on their sides, whereas the doctors had women give birth on their backs.

Semmelweis had the doctors switch to side position births.

Still, the doctor delivery deaths piled up.

When a woman died in the doctor's clinic, a priest would walk the hall ringing a bell.

Semmelweis wondered if the sound was terrorizing the women.

He had the bell silenced.

Still, no change.