Dr Virginia Apgar, (June 7, 1909 – August 7, 1974)Inventor Of 'Apgar Score' - All You Need To Know

Described as a leader in the field of anesthesiology and hailed for developing the Apgar score system, a test that determines 60 seconds after birth whether a baby needs help to sustain life, Virginia Apgar would have been 109 on Thursday June 7,2018

In her honour, Google is changing its logo in 15 countries to a doodle, or illustration, of her and the Apgar score.

But in her lifetime, the doctor was not always appreciated for her achievements. This is her story:

A potential doctor

• Apgar was born in New Jersey. She was the youngest of three children. Her father was an insurance executive, but also an inventor and astronomer.
  

• Before she was born, her eldest brother died from tuberculosis, and the other one suffered from chronical diseases.
  
• This inheritance motivated her to study zoology, chemistry and physiology before attending Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and obtaining a medical degree in 1933.
  
• However, she was soon discouraged by Dr Allen Whipple, the chairman of surgery at Columbia Medical Center, from pursuing her career as a surgeon.

Era of female doctor shortage

• According to a publication on The Time, there were only 7,000 women doctors in the United States before she was born, but the number dropped even further around the time she was born.
  
• Many of the schools that offered accepted medical education did not admit women at all. Women who did manage to attain the medical degree were often discouraged.
• She was no exception and she was instead encouraged to practice anaesthesiology. Dr Whipple felt advancements were needed in that area, and she seemed to have the "energy and ability."
  
• She eventually rose and became director of Columbia University's department of anaesthesia, and in 1949 she became the first woman to become a full-time professor at Columbia University.
• She became a leading figure in the fields of anaesthesiology and teratology. As attending anesthesiologist at Presbyterian Hospital, she assisted in the delivery of close to 20,000 babies
  
  

  Apgar Score 

• In the 1950s, the US infant mortality rate decreased, but the number of infant deaths within the first 24 hours remained high.
  
• She noticed that infants who were blue or were struggling to breathe were listed as stillborn and left to die. The scientist began investigating methods for decreasing the infant mortality.
• She developed a test known as the Apgar Score, which measures body functions and helps doctors determine within 60 seconds after the birth whether a baby needs help to sustain life.
  
• The functions are heart rate, respiration, muscle tone, reflexes and skin colour. Through this method, she found out that a baby with a poor rating could be resuscitated by oxygen and warming.
  
• Babies get a score of zero, one or two for each of those factors, and the total scores let doctors know if something is wrong.
  
• Apgar's work contributed to a drop in deaths, from one in 30 in the 1950s to one in 500 today. The Apgar score is still used in some hospitals in the US.

Rubella pandemic 

• During the rubella pandemic of 1964, Apgar became an advocate for universal vaccination to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the disease.
  
• Rubella could cause serious disorders if a woman becomes infected while pregnant.
  
• Apgar promoted effective use of a testing, which can identify women who are at risk for transmission of antibodies across the placenta.
  
• She devoted the rest of her life to prevent conditions that caused newborns to have low Apgar scores.
  
• During her career, she maintained optimism and used to say "women are liberated from the time they leave the womb."
• Apgar never got married, "I never found a man who could cook," she said. She died in 1974 at the age of 65 from cirrhosis of the liver.
  

Honours 

• Dr Apgar received honorary doctorates from the Woman's Medical College of Pensylvania in 1954 and Mount Holyoke College in 1955.
  
• The Elizabeth Blackwell Award from the American MedicaL Women's Association in 1966.
  
• The Alumni Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement from Columbia University in 1973.
  
• She was elected Woman of the Year in Science by the Ladies Home Journal in 1973