Virginia Apgar

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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 Apgar Score, which is still used worldwide today .

Life

Virginia Apgar was born the youngest of three children and the only daughter of Helen and Charles Apgar. The father was an insurance agent. Since both parents were interested in music, she took violin lessons; she was to remain loyal to the instrument later on. She wanted to study medicine when she was still at school. After graduating from Westfield High School in 1925, she attended Mount Holyoke College , which she graduated from with a bachelor's degree in zoology as one of the top students . She was seen as a student with a wide range of interests, practiced seven sports and worked as a reporter and actress.

surgery

In 1929 she began studying medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. In 1933 she was one of the first women to take the exam there. She then completed her assistantship at the New York Presbyterian Hospital . After two years she had successfully performed several hundred operations and was regarded as a very promising surgical talent. Nevertheless, her mentor Allen Oldfather Whipple advised her against the surgery because the career prospects for women were poor. Until then, none of his assistants had been able to make a living from their profession. Virginia Apgar blamed this fact not only on men but also on women:

“Women don't want to be operated on by a surgeon. Only God knows why. "

- Virginia Apgar

Anesthesiology

Whipple advised her to use the then new anesthesiology , which until then had only been operated by nurses and surgeons. Well-trained specialists were required for the complicated and lengthy interventions. In 1938, Apgar became the first head of the anesthesia department at Columbia University . Here she laid the foundations for a new academic field of medicine. When the department was converted into an independent department in 1949, a male colleague took over management. In compensation, Columbia University named Virginia Apgar as the United States' first female professor of anesthesiology .

Neonatology

From her experience and observations in anesthesia and obstetrics , Virginia Apgar soon realized that the lives of many newborn babies could be saved if they were examined and treated immediately after birth. At that time, the newborn was often cared for by the most inexperienced members of the obstetric team, and not even clearing the airways and administering oxygen were established. There was no uniform definition of when a newborn should be classified as "normal" or guidelines as to when it should be resuscitated. Apgar worked to ensure that a risk to the newborn was recognized early and that better therapy could be initiated. She provided training for the obstetric team in anesthesia and drafted treatment guidelines for asphyctic newborns. According to one story, she was inspired to the Apgar scheme she developed by a question from an assistant. He asked her: "How could you systematically and quickly determine the condition of a newborn?" Then she should have written the following on a piece of paper: 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 anesthetists at the time assessed their anesthetized patients. She developed these criteria further, assigned a point value from zero to two to each characteristic and thus created a system with which one could assess the condition of a newborn child relatively objectively and thus comparably.

She presented this evaluation system at the 27th Annual American Anesthesiology Congress in Palm Beach in 1952 . She had previously checked its validity on more than a thousand newborns. In 1953 she published her results and derived proposals in the journal Current Researches in Anesthesia and Analgesia under the title "A Proposal for a New Method of Evaluation of the Newborn Infant" . Their rating index found recognition surprisingly quickly and within a few years it spread throughout the United States and, in the early 1960s, Europe. In the United States, a motto was introduced in 1963 by Joseph Butterfield using her last name. The interpretation of the letters of “APGAR” as a backronym can take on different meanings for the various mottos , even in different languages; however, this is not a disadvantage, since no order is assigned to the five criteria.

Later years

In the late 1950s, Apgar took a leave of absence and studied at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health , where she graduated in 1959 with a " Master of Public Health ". Immediately afterwards, she took over the chairmanship of the March-of-Dimes Foundation , a non-profit organization for pregnancy and infant health. Due to her many years of experience, Apgar was particularly suitable for this position: She had been present at around 17,000 births, was an expert in the still young subject neonatology , an excellent teacher and speaker. She also worked tirelessly to raise funds for this foundation. She managed to increase annual revenue from $ 19 million when she took office to $ 46 million. Between 1960 and 1974 she traveled all over the world to raise funds and pursued research in perinatology . She made an important contribution to the prevention of birth defects. In addition to numerous contributions to journals and magazines and more than 60 scientific articles, she and Joan Beck wrote a book for pregnant women entitled “ Is My Baby All Right? "

Virginia Apgar remained single. When asked why she never married, she once said: “I just haven't found a man who can cook.” From 1973 onwards, she had to reduce her work time because of a liver disease; In 1974 she finally succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver . 20 years after her death, the United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp with her portrait on it. Virginia Apgar was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1995. On June 7, 2018, Google dedicated a Google Doodle to her for her 109th birthday .

Publications

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

literature

  • H. Ludwig: Virginia Apgar (1909-1974). In: Gynecologist. 40, 2007, pp. 227-228, doi: 10.1007 / s00129-007-1943-5
  • K. Brandt, L. Brandt Birth is the most dangerous time in life. In: Midwifery Journal. 6 (2009), pp. 67-69.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Apgar V .: A proposal for a new method of evaluation of the newborn infant. In: Curr Res Anaesth Analg . tape 32 , 1953, pp. 261-267 , doi : 10.1213 / 00000539-195301000-00041 , PMID 13083014 .
  2. ↑ Virginia Apgar, Joan Beck: Is My Baby All Right? 1st edition. Trident Press, 1972, ISBN 978-0-671-27095-7 .
  3. ↑ Laurie Scrivener, J. Suzanne Barnes: A Biographical Dictionary of Women Healers . Oryx Press, Westport, CT 2002, ISBN 1-57356-219-X , pp. 6-7.
  4. ↑ 109th birthday of Dr. Virginia Apgar. In: Google. June 7, 2018, accessed June 16, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Apgar, Virginia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American surgeon and anesthetist
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Westfield , New Jersey
DATE OF DEATH 7th August 1974
Place of death New York City