Could Have Social Media Saved Semmelweis?

Dr. Ignác Semmelweis, a Hungarian medical doctor, or ‘the savior of mothers’ suggested that hand sanitizing could save new mothers from “childbed fever”. However, the reflex reaction of his colleagues was rejection. For years, he strove for the introduction of handwashing in hospitals in vain. Being ostracized from the medical community, he died in a psychiatric ward from internal bleeding. Members of the staff beat him up. He was born 200 years ago. What if he could have shared his ideas via social media or peer-reviewed research? Could the power of online communities have saved him? The tragic fate of a doctor going against the core beliefs of the medical community The 47-year-old professor visited the clinic of his dermatologist friend in the company of his wife and child on 31 July 1865. He felt tired after the long carriageway from Budapest to Vienna, so he gladly accepted the offered visitor’s room. However, when he woke up and wanted to find his family, nurses got in his way. They said he was in a psychiatric ward hospitalized due to insanity. He tried to resist, but six people beat him up. He was confined in a dark room in a straightjacket. When he tried to escape through the window again, he was brutally beaten: several of his bones broke, his chest opened. He wailed for long nights. Without proper medical care, his wounds got infected – he became septic. Two weeks after he arrived, he died in dreadful agony. No one visited him, and his death certificate...
Source: The Medical Futurist - Category: Information Technology Authors: Tags: Bioethics Social media in Healthcare history online community research research community Semmelweis Source Type: blogs