A Shocking Discovery in Vienna
In the mid-19th century, childbirth in hospitals was a gamble. At Vienna General Hospital’s First Obstetrical Clinic, maternal deaths from puerperal fever often exceeded 10%, while the Second Clinic, run mostly by midwives, saw far fewer losses. Ignaz Semmelweis, a young Hungarian physician, was determined to uncover the reason.
Uncovering the Cause
In 1847, tragedy struck when Semmelweis’s friend Jakob Kolletschka died after being cut by a student’s scalpel during an autopsy. His symptoms mirrored those of women who succumbed to childbed fever. Semmelweis realized that physicians, who performed autopsies before delivering babies, carried infectious material on their hands into the maternity ward.
The Handwashing Revolution
Semmelweis ordered doctors and medical students to wash their hands in a chlorinated lime solution before examining patients. The results were astonishing: mortality in the First Clinic dropped from 18.3% in April 1847 to 1.9% by August. For the first time, thousands of women could give birth without the same terrifying risk of death.
Rejection and Tragic End
Despite the evidence, his colleagues resisted. Many were offended by the suggestion that doctors’ hands were unclean. Semmelweis became increasingly outspoken, publishing his findings in 1861, but his work was dismissed. In 1865, suffering from a breakdown, he was committed to an asylum where he was beaten by guards.
He died two weeks later from infection at just 47 years old. Only years later, with the rise of germ theory through Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister, was his discovery recognized as the foundation of antiseptic medicine.
At Vienna General Hospital, one maternity clinic lost far more mothers than the one next door.
In 1847, Ignaz Semmelweis set out to find the cause. What followed slashed deaths, brought fierce opposition, and ended with his confinement and death…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/fHoH2jzVqh
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) October 1, 2025