Chances are if you are reading this you passed your first test. With flying colours!
Let me introduce you to someone very remarkable!
Her name is Virginia Apgar.
Just who is Virginia? Check out her “stats”:
- One of the first women to ever graduate with an MD from Columbia University in 1933.
- In 1939 she became the first women to become a Head of a department at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons.
- In 1949 she became the first women to be granted a full professorship in anesthesiology at Columbia.
Sure, this is remarkable. But Virginia’s not done yet. And, by the way, you haven’t passed the test yet.
Prior to World War II, the vast majority of babies where born at home. After WWII, due to social shifts, babies were delivered in hospitals. Soon after birth, the baby would be “cleaned up” and sent to the nursery. Unless there were obvious signs, many problems could not be detected. Why? There was no method for diagnosing a newborn’s health.
“Birth is the most hazordous time of life,” said Dr. Agpar.
In response, she created the “Newborn Scoring System” which is now the international standard for evaluating a baby at birth.
As a colleague observed, “Every baby born in a modern hospital anywhere in the world is now looked at first through the eyes of Virginia Apgar.”
Dr. Apgar has made a profound impact on the lives of billions of babies, including you and yours! No massive marketing budget, no huge technological shift. Just experience and common sense. Remarkable!
Congratulations for passing! Now, if you could only figure out how to pass that darn chemistry exam!