Are You a Semmelweis?

My husband told me a story last week, one he said every medical student learns.  It was about a Doctor named Semmelweis.  This doctor was an OB, a doctor of obstetrics.  He was working at the First Obstetrical Clinic at Vienna General Hospital back in 1846.  It was essentially the free hospital at the time, so many of the women who went there had no money.  There was an affiliated hospital (Second Obstetrical Clinic) run by midwives instead of physicians.  Then, just like now, you'd think most women would have preferred to be seen by someone with greater training... so they'd want to go to the physician hospital, right?

Except, Dr. Semmelweis discovered that was not the case.

Women were literally having their babies in the street to avoid going to the First hospital to deliver.  They were begging on their hands and knees while in labor to be admitted and deliver in the second one.  Why?  Because the first had a reputation of the mothers DYING after delivery.  So Dr. Semmelweis looked into the numbers.  Lo and behold, 18% of the women were dying after childbirth from "childbirth fever" when they were delivered on the physician side, but the number was much lower on the Second Hospital side, around 5%.

Dr. Semmelweis decided to discover the cause.  I won't share the entire story because it gets long, but he came to the conclusion eventually, after a lot of effort, that it was because the doctors were examining cadavers as part of their medical schooling and then going straight over to deliver babies.  He developed a chlorinated lime protocol, requiring the students and physicians to cleanse their hands with this solution after studying the cadavers and before delivering the babies.  The number, with implementation time, dropped to ZERO women dying from this "childbirth fever."

He wrote a book on his findings, convinced he could share this idea of cleaning your hands of these unclean particles with the world.  It was an astonishing failure.  See, the prevailing belief at the time was that the body had four humors and you had to literally bleed patients to set their body back in balance.  The various differing symptoms of the dead women provided scientific "evidence" to the other physicians that Dr. Semmelweis's explanation was far too simple.  It couldn't have been "one disease" from "uncleanliness."  After all, these doctors weren't unclean.  The illnesses weren't their fault!

Eventually, angry that no one would listen, Dr. Semmelweis began to call the people who disagreed "irresponsible murderers."  They locked him up in an asylum, where he died at the age of 47.  (I should note that it is likely he had some kind of illness, like early onset Alzheimer's because he had dealt his entire life with people's disbelief, but only became belligerent near the end).  In any case, he died at an early age, still in disrepute.  It was not for several more decades, until Pasteur and Lister could explain germ theory, that anyone believed in Semmelweis's protocols and people realized: HE WAS RIGHT, all along.

How could you possibly be a Semmelweis, you ask?  What is Bridget writing about now?

I've been thinking about this story for a while.  I've been contemplating how faith, and religion in general, has fallen out of favor.  I can't tell you how many very intelligent people have told me that "you just can't prove there's a God.  And if there was a God, why haven't we seen Him? Or heard from Him?"  I guess this blog post is my answer.

Semmelweis couldn't prove germ theory.  Science hadn't advanced far enough yet.  I also can't prove to you that there's a God.  I personally believe that one day, I will know.  I believe that one day, probably after I've died, I'll see him.  Who knows, maybe Christ will come again while I am alive.  But one day, I will see God, and I will know.  You will, too, I think.  But until that time, I am going to keep telling people about the good that God brings to my life.  It's undeniable.  It's not numbers and charts and data, it's not even specifically quantifiable like Semmelweis's data was, but it's just as clear, and it's just as true.

God brings me peace.  He brings me joy.  His gospel brings my family light and truth.  He has given us the power of prayer, and the gift of the Holy Ghost that we may all know, if we will ask, that He lives.  We also have the gift of Jesus's atonement, that we may all be forgiven for our sins and become clean through His sacrifice, and after His example.  I promise you that even when it's hard, even when people don't believe you, or it's not popular, truth is truth.  Light is light, and God will bless your life if you will believe in Him and act in His name.  I know it to be true, just as Dr. Semmelweis knew that disinfectant saved lives.  God has saved my life, and He continues to do so.  Let him save yours, too, that is my prayer today.