Virginia Apgar

Virginia Apgar ( born June 7, 1909 in Westfield, New Jersey; † August 7, 1974 in New York City ) was an American surgeon and anesthetist. In 1952 she developed the world today common Apgar score.

Life

Virginia Apgar was born as the youngest of three children and the only girl of Helen and Charles Apgar. The father was an insurance agent. Since both parents were musically interested, they received violin lessons; the instrument should also remain true later. Back in high school, she wanted to study medicine. After she finished high school in 1925 in Westfield, she attended Mount Holyoke College, she left one of the best students with a bachelor's degree in zoology. It was considered a versatile interested student, operating seven sports and worked as a reporter and actress.

Surgery

In 1929, she began her medical studies at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. In 1933 she was one of the first women to be there, took off the exam. Your subsequent residency, she completed at NewYork -Presbyterian Hospital. After two years she had several hundred operations carried out successfully and was considered a promising surgical talent. Nevertheless, her mentor Allen Oldfather Whipple advised her of the surgery because the job prospects for women were poor. None of his assistants was by then living from their profession. Virginia Apgar put this fact by no means only men but women also alleged:

" Women do not want to be operated on by a surgeon. Only God knows why. "

Anesthesiology

Whipple advised her to then new anesthesiology, which was operated until then only by nurses and surgeons. In the complicated and long procedures well-trained specialists were needed. So Apgar in 1938 became the first head of the anesthesia department at Columbia University. Here they laid the foundations for a new academic field of medicine. As in 1949, the department was transformed into an independent Department, got the line a male colleague. As compensation, the Columbia University Virginia Apgar appointed the first Professor of Anesthesiology of the United States.

Neonatology

Because of their experiences and observations in anesthesia and obstetrics Virginia Apgar soon realized that the lives of many newborns could be saved if they would have been immediately investigated and treated after birth. At the time, the newborn was often looked after by the most inexperienced members of the obstetric team, not even the clearing of airway and oxygen administration were established. A uniform definition of when a newborn classified as "normal", or guidelines as to when it is to resuscitate, there was not. Apgar worked to ensure that any risk to the newborn was recognized early on and thus a better therapy could be initiated. She cared for training of obstetrical teams in anesthesia, designed treatment guidelines for asphyxic newborns. According to one story, they should have been inspired to the model developed by their Apgar scheme by the question of a wizard. This they said, "How could systematically and quickly determine the condition of a newborn you? " Then they said to have written a paper on the following: 1 Heart rate (heart rate ) 2 respiration (breathing) 3 Muscle tone or activity ( muscle tone and activity ) 4 reflex irritability ( reflex response to stimulation ) 5 color (skin color). These were the criteria with which anesthesiologists then assessed their anesthetized patients. She developed these criteria further, ordered every type a point value of zero to two and to creating a system by which one could relatively objective and thus comparable to assess the condition of a newborn.

This rating system they presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the American anesthesiologist in 1952 in Palm Beach. Previously, she had checked its validity to more than 1000 newborns. In 1953 they published their findings and proposals derived in the journal Current Researches in Anesthesia and Analgesia, and entitled " A Proposal for a New Method of Evaluation of the Newborn Infant". Your rating index was surprisingly fast recognition and spread within a few years throughout the United States and in the early 1960s in Europe. In the U.S., a mnemonic by Joseph Butterfield was introduced in 1963, using her last name. However, " Apgar " may each contain a different meaning in the different mnemonics.

Later years

End of the 1950s had Apgar of absence to study at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, where in 1959 a " Master of Public Health " graduated. Right after she took over the presidency of the March of Dimes - Foundation, a nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health. Apgar was particularly suitable for this position due to their years of experience: She had been at around 17,000 births here, was an expert in the fledgling specialist neonatal care, an excellent teacher and speaker. In addition, they tried tirelessly to raise funds for this foundation. She was able to increase the annual revenues of $ 19 million when it took office on 46 million. Between 1960 and 1974 she traveled the world to raise donations, and drove the research of Perinatology advance. So you made ​​an important contribution to the prevention of birth defects. In addition to numerous articles for magazines and journals and more than 60 scientific articles, she also wrote a book for pregnant women with the title " Is my baby all right".

Virginia Apgar remained single. When asked why she never married, she once stated: "I have just found a husband who can cook. " Starting in 1973, they had to increasingly reduce their activity due to liver disease; In 1974, she succumbed to her. 20 years after her death, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp with her ​​portrait. Virginia Apgar was inducted into the National Women 's Hall of Fame in 1995.

Publications

• Infant resuscitation (1957). Conn. Med 71 (2007 ), pp. 553-535