Today's google doodle celebrated Dr Virginia Apgar, an American obstetrical anesthetist on her 109th birth anniversary. She is best known as the inventor of the 'Apgar score,' a method to summarise the birth of newborns. Dr Apgar developed the score in 1952 to quantify the effect of obstetric anaesthesia on babies.
Born in 1909, Virginia Apgar was the youngest of the three children. She was raised in Westfield, New Jersey in the United States. Virginia graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1929 and from the Colombia University College Of Physicians and Surgeons in 1933. By 1937, she was the first woman to be a board-certified anaesthesiologist. In 1949, Virginia Apgar became the first the professor of anesthesiology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. She was also the first female physician to get the rank of full professor at the college.
Virginia Apgar's interest in treatment of newborns led her to develop a system for evaluating the health of newborn infants. In 1952, she finally presented the Apgar Score system. The system relied on five indicators, which are to be observed nurses or the delivery room personnel within one minute of birth. These are Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration. Score above 7 are normal and 4 to 6 are fairly low. Below 3 is considered critically low, and the child requires medical attention.
Virginia Apgar received a degree in public health from John Hopkins University in 1959. She also co-wrote a book, Is My Baby All Right? with author Joan Beck in 1973. On August 7, 1974, she died of cirrhosis of the liver at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. But the Apgar score system developed by her is still used to quickly assess the health of newborns.
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
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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.
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Before she was born, her eldest brother died from tuberculosis, and the other one suffered from chronical diseases.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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During the rubella pandemic of 1964, Apgar became an advocate for
universal vaccination to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the
disease.
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Rubella could cause serious disorders if a woman becomes infected while pregnant.
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Apgar promoted effective use of a testing, which can identify women
who are at risk for transmission of antibodies across the placenta.
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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."
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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
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Dr Apgar received honorary doctorates from the Woman's Medical College of Pensylvania in 1954 and Mount Holyoke College in 1955.
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The Elizabeth Blackwell Award from the American MedicaL Women's Association in 1966.
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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
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