Virginia Apgar ( Eng. Virginia Apgar ; June 7, 1909 - August 7, 1974 ) - American anesthetist in obstetrics : creator of the Apgar scale .
| Virginia apgar | |
|---|---|
| Virginia apgar | |
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| Date of Birth | June 7, 1909 |
| Place of Birth | New Jersey , USA |
| Date of death | August 7, 1974 (aged 65) |
| Place of death | New York , USA |
| Citizenship |  USA |
| Occupation | neonatologist anesthetist |
| Awards and prizes | Honorary Doctor ( 1965 ) [d] ( 1966 ) National Women's Hall of Fame ( 1995 ) |
Content
Biography
Born June 7, 1909 in Westfield, New Jersey ( USA ) in the family of Helen Clark and Charles Emory Apgar. Father was a scientist and inventor. In the basement of their house, a real science laboratory was equipped, and in the attic there was a small telescope , which Virginia's father assembled on his own. For some reason, the Apgar family was constantly in need of money, and the older brother of Virginia was seriously ill. The atmosphere of the house, saturated with a thirst for knowledge, the desire to help his brother - all this aroused the desire in Virginia to engage in medicine at all costs. After leaving school, she decides to continue her education at Mount Holyoke College, South Headley, Mass. , Which she graduated in 1929 . At that time, she had to live only due to a modest scholarship and various part-time jobs (for example, catching cats for a zoological laboratory).
In September 1929, Virginia Apgar finally achieved her goal by enrolling at Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons (Columbia University College of Therapy and Surgery) in New York . A month later, the United States began the period of the Great Depression . And without that, not the most reliable financial situation of the girl was even more shaken. Nevertheless, she still managed to continue her studies, borrowing money from a family friend. By the time she received her diploma of higher medical education (1933), she had accumulated debts in the amount of about 4 thousand dollars. At that time, it was a huge amount, especially for an unmarried woman who wanted to become a surgeon.
Virginia began her career in October 1933 as an intern in surgery and quickly achieved some success in this area. However, a year later she began to study again, now to become an anesthetist. What made her change her mind? The root cause, most likely, is the economic problem. It was much more difficult for a female surgeon to take place on a professional level, to become financially independent, to be accepted in surgical circles on a par with men. In addition, Dr. Alan Whipple, the chief surgeon of Columbia , was planning to raise the level of anesthetic care to an appropriate height, and Virginia Apgar, in his opinion, was the most suitable candidate to initiate this process. Despite the fact that this is not documented in any way, probably anesthesiology for Virginia Apgar was a kind of chance to “stake out” a free field of activity so that women doctors would have the opportunity to realize themselves professionally. At that time, she kept a personal diary, the pages of which testify to the experiences of the young doctor during the period when she mastered a new specialty: “Today, for the first time I gave anesthesia. In general, everything went well, but the patient did not wake up for a long time ... Another trouble happened today - the patient almost died. ” However, almost all doctors face such difficulties in everyday activities.
In addition to the fact that Virginia was experiencing simple everyday difficulties (for example, with housing), in the diary she describes her disappointment and despair due to the fact that she simply can not attend meetings of associations of anesthetists, since they were usually held in closed men's clubs. She writes with irony about one of these visits: “Great meeting. Crazy dinner, like a bachelor party. ”
In 1938, Virginia Apgar returned to Colombia as head of the department of anesthesiology at the Department of Surgery. By this time, she clearly understood the concept of training personnel for the future department of anesthesiology. She learned the main points of the future training program from her teachers, in particular from Ralph M. Waters. During the initial training of medical students, she set herself the goal, firstly, of selecting the most talented and capable young doctors in order to further form the staff of the anesthesiology department precisely from them; secondly, it was very important to ensure adequate patient care. These two circumstances were fundamental and equally important in the selection of personnel.
However, soon the young head of the department faced new problems. It was very difficult to recruit staff, the workload was huge, especially when the Second World War began . Surgeons still considered themselves the main protagonist in the operating room and did not want to perceive the anesthetists as peers in the operation, which, of course, was important in the treatment of the patient. In addition, the work of anesthetists was paid an order of magnitude lower than the work of a surgeon. Despite the fact that some positive changes have nevertheless occurred, the situation, by and large, has not changed.
It soon became clear that training medical students in the basics of anesthesiology and postoperative patient care alone could not solve the problem as a whole. To train qualified personnel in the field of anesthesiology, postgraduate education is necessary. And in the period from 1946 to 1948, to develop this new area, they began to actively attract leading experts in anesthesiology. To this end, Professor E.M. Paper leaves his job at the largest hospital in Bellevue, Columbia, to head the department of anesthesiology, which had been formed at that time, which was no longer considered only a division of the surgical department. So, Dr. Apgar goes to work in obstetric anesthesiology - an industry that at that time was in rather poor condition. To raise it to the proper level, well-trained interns were required.
In 1949, Apgar became the first female professor at Columbia P&S, while at the same time she was engaged in scientific and research work at Sloane Hospital for Women.
In 1959, Dr. Apgar entered Johns Hopkins University's School of National Health to earn a Master of Public Health. Virginia hoped that during her studies, she would be able to access statistics that would help in the studies of her colleagues James and Holday.
At the same time, she was invited to take the post of director of the new unit of the National Fund for Birth Defects. “No one talks about the resignation or retirement,” she said. “This is a completely new turn in my career, and it is very interesting to me.” Apgar devoted the last 15 years of her life to work in the National Fund, putting a lot of effort into his successful work.
However, the most famous brainchild of Virginia Apgar was the Apgar scale proposed in 1952.
Her life was filled with completely versatile interests: she was a passionate fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team, was fond of deep-sea fishing , philately, and was very successful in music, playing beautifully on the cello and violin .
APGAR Scale
At the 27th annual congress of anesthesiologists (1952), Virginia Apgar first officially presented her developed system for assessing the condition of the newborn in the first minutes of life.
For ease of remembering the necessary criteria for assessing the condition of a newborn, Virginia Apgar used the five letters of her own surname:
- A ppearance - appearance (color of the skin);
- P ulse (Heart Rate) - the pulse of the child (heart rate);
- G rimace (Response to Stimulation) - a grimace that occurs in response to irritation;
- A ctivity (Muscle Tone) - activity of movements, muscle tone;
- R espiration - breathing movements.
Bibliography
- Is My Baby All Right? with Joan Beck (1972)
- Over 60 scientific articles
- Numerous notes in popular publications