The biography was born 1909

Creator of the famous Apgar scale. Father was a scientist and inventor. A real scientific laboratory was equipped in the basement of their house, and in the attic there was a small telescope, which Virginia's father gathered on his own. Virginia knew the constellation in the sky, like her five fingers, and as a child learned to play the violin. For certain reasons, the Apgar family constantly needed money, besides, Virginia's older brother died of tuberculosis.

The atmosphere of the house, saturated with a craving for knowledge, the desire to help his brother - all this awakened in Virginia thirst for medicine at all costs. At the end of school, she decides to continue education in college. At that time, she has to live only at the expense of a modest scholarship and various part -time jobs, for example, catching cats for a zoological laboratory.

In September, Virginia finally reaches her goal, entering the Colombian University College of Therapy and Surgery in New York. By the time she received a diploma of higher medical education, she, who graduated from one of the best on the course, accumulated debts worth about 4 thousand. At that time, it was a colossal amount, especially for an unmarried woman. Virginia began labor activity in October as a boarding school in surgery and quickly achieved certain successes in this area.

However, a year later, she began to study again, now to become an anesthetist. The root cause of such a solution was, first of all, an economic problem. It was much more difficult for a woman-surgeon to take place professional, to become financially independent, to be accepted in surgical circles along with men. In addition, Dr. Alan Wipple, who is also the head of the Virginia curriculum, planned to raise the level of anesthetic assistance to the proper height, and Apgar, in his opinion, was the most suitable candidate to initiate this process.

Despite the fact that this is not evidenced, probably, anesthesiology for Virginia Apgar Apgar was a kind of chance to “stake” the free field of activity so that women-doctors have the opportunity to realize themselves professionally. 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 he simply can not attend meetings of associations of anesthesiologists, since they were usually held in closed men's clubs.

She writes about one of these visits with irony: “Great meeting. Crazy dinner, looks like a bachelor party. ” In the year, Apgar returned to Columbia College as head of the department of anesthesiology in the surgery. By this time, she quite clearly imagined the concept of staff training for the future department of anesthesiology. However, soon the young department manager faced problems.

It was very difficult to gain staff, the loads at work were huge, especially when the Second World War began. Surgeons still considered themselves the main character in the operating room and did not want to perceive anesthetists as equivalent colleagues in the operation, which, of course, was important in the process of treating the patient. In addition, the work of anesthesiologists was paid an order of magnitude lower than the work of the surgeon.

Despite the fact that some positive changes have nevertheless occurred, the situation, by and large, has not changed. It soon became clear that the training of medical students in itself only the basics of anesthesiology and postoperative care of patients could not solve the problem as a whole. To prepare qualified personnel in the field of anesthesiology, postgraduate training must be underway.

And in the period from the year, for the development of this new direction, they began to actively attract leading specialists in anesthesiology. To this end, Professor E. Piceper leaves work in the largest hospital in the state of Colombia in order to lead the department of anesthesiology formed by that time, which ceased to be considered only a division of the surgical department.

So, Virginia Apgar goes to work in obstetric anesthesiology - the industry, which at that time was in a rather neglected state. To raise it to a proper level, well-prepared interns were required. Perhaps the most famous brainchild of Virginia Apgar was the scale offered by her to assess the state of newborns. Apgar collected material for her work in maternity hospitals.

Its main scientific interest at that time was the influence of various anesthetics on the condition of the mother and child during childbirth and after them. Note that in the thirties and fifth years of the twentieth century, both maternal and infant mortality was quite high. Anesthetizing the birth, Virginia noticed that some anesthetics affect not only the mother, but also the child.In order to accurately predict this influence, Virginia Apgar came up with a scale, which evaluated the viability of the baby, and then the results were compared in children whose mothers were anesthetized in various ways.

The assessment took into account breathing, heartbeat, reflexes, muscle tone and skin color. The latest methods were also involved in this - a blood test, in particular, the content of oxygen in it. The very idea of ​​creating the Apgar scale was born unexpectedly, during breakfast in the hospital of the hospital.

One of the medical students made an accidental remark about the need to assess the state of the baby. She grabbed the first piece of paper that came across and briefly recorded five points of the future famous scale. Later, being in the obstetric department, Virginia tried to apply her invention in practical activities. At the annual congress of anesthesiologists, Virginia Apgar for the first time officially introduced the system of assessing the state of the newborn in the first minutes of her life.

For the ease of memorization of the necessary criteria for assessing the state of the newborn, Virginia Apgar took advantage of the five letters of her own surname: - Appe her - appearance the color of the skin; - Pulse Heart Rate - heart heart pulse of heart contractions; - Grimace Response to Stimulation - grimace that arises in response to irritation; - Activity muscle tone - activity activity, muscle tone; - Respiration - respiratory movements.

Each of the parameters is evaluated by one of three assessments: 2 - “the sign is pronounced”, 1 - “the sign is weakly expressed”, 0 - “the sign is absent”. As a result of the observations and studies of Virginia Apgar, it turned out that some common methods of anesthesia are not suitable for childbirth, because they increase the risk of baby's death. It turned out that many anesthetizing substances that gave the women inhale, reduce the amount of oxygen in their blood and, accordingly, in the blood of the child.

Thanks to the works of the Apgar, these substances abandoned that life and health saved thousands of children. The department of anesthesiology has become a launching pad for many students and young specialists. Today, dozens of different children's resuscitation methods are used. However, the APAG scale is still used as a standard system for assessing the condition of the child.

The rationality of the application of the Apgar scale is scientifically substantiated. Scientists have proven that the presence of hypoxia and acidosis is not a normal condition for the baby, and with a low assessment on the Apgar scale, the treatment and correction of these conditions should begin urgently. It was also found that the use of cyclopropan can lead to severe depression of the baby.

As a result, the frequency of use of this drug in obstetric practice has significantly decreased. In the year, Apgar became the first woman-professional at the Kolmubi College of Surgery and Therapy, while at the same time she was engaged in scientific and research work in the Single Women's Hospital. In the year, the Apgar entered the University of John Hopkins at the National Health School to get a master's degree in the field of public health.

Virginia hoped that during training she could access statistics that would help in scientific research. At the same time, she was invited to take the post of director of the new unit of the National Fund of Congenital Vamples. Apgar devoted the last 15 years of her life to work in this fund, making a lot of efforts for its successful activity. Leading the National Fund, it dealt with the problem of polio, and it was at that time that this disease was eliminated.

During the Pandemia that erupted in the years, Apgar acted as an unconditional supporter of universal vaccination to prevent the transfer of rubella, which can cause serious congenital disorders if a woman is infected during pregnancy. But with such intensive scientific and clinical work, it was not fixated only on it and had a lot of other interests and hobbies. The passionate fan of the Brooklyn Dodders baseball team, Virginia was fond of deep -sea fishing, philately, and piloting aircraft, and, since childhood, music: contemporaries talk about the excellent ownership of her cello and violin.

The last orchestra was later renamed her honor. Another interesting fact of the biography of the doctors and musicians of Apgar: for her life, she herself made 4 string instruments - violin, Mezzo Vioolin, cello and alt. To do this, she had to turn her own bedroom into the workshop. Those who were lucky enough to know Virginia Apgar personally, she was remembered as a very responsive, open and unusually energetic woman.