The Man Who Was Right for the Wrong Reason
The Man Who Was Right for the Wrong Reason What happens when you save thousands of lives, but no one believes you because your explanation sounds stupid? In 1847, in Vienna, Austria, one in five women walked into a hospital to give birth and never walked out. They died of a mysterious fever. Doctors called it "childbed fever." No one knew what caused it. But a 29-year-old doctor named Ignaz Semmelweis noticed something strange. There were two maternity clinics in the same hospital. In Clinic 1, run by doctors and medical students, 18% of mothers died. In Clinic 2, run by midwives, only 2% died. Same building. Same city. Same air. Why was one a death trap and the other safe? The Clue Everyone Else Missed Semmelweis watched what the doctors did every day. Every morning, the doctors and students would go to the morgue. They would cut open dead bodies to study anatomy. Then, they would wipe their hands on their coats and walk straight upstairs to deliver babies. The m...