ChildBed Fever: A Nineteenth Century Mystery Questions please :) Childbed Fever:

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ChildBed Fever: A Nineteenth Century Mystery

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Childbed Fever: A Nineteenth Century Mystery-Case Study Collection National Center... Page CHILDBED FEVER A Nineteenth-Century Mystery by Christa Colyer School of Science University of Ontario Institute of Technology PART I Ignaz Semmelweis, a young Hungarian doctor working in the obstetrical ward of Vienna General Hospital in the late 1840s, was dismayed at the high death rate among his patients. He had noticed that nearly 20% of the women under his and his colleagues' care in "Division I" of the ward (that is the division attended by physicians and male medical students) died shortly after childbirth. This phenomenon had come to be known as "childbed fever." Alarmingly, Semmelweis noted that this death rate was four to five times greater than that in ICNAZ PNILIPP SEMMELWEIS 150 REPUBLIROSTERREICH Division II" of the ward (that is, the division attended by female midwifery students) Study Questions: What were Semmelweis' initial observations? 2. What was the problem at hand? 3. What possible explanatory story might Semmelweis come up with? 4. How might Semmelweis test his suspicions? PART II One day, Semmelweis and some of his colleagues were in the autopsy room performing autopsies as they often did between deliveries. They were discussing their concerns about death rates from childbed fever. One of Semmelweis' friends was distracted by the conversation, and he punctured his finger with the scalpel. Days later, Semmelweis' friend became quite sick, showing symptoms not unlike those of childbed fever. His friend's ultimate death strengthened Semmelweis' resolve to understand and prevent childbed fever. Study Questions: 1. What might Semmelweis now propose as an explanatory story? 2. How could Semmelweis test his new hypothesis? 9/24/2010 http://www.sciencecases.org/childbed fever/childbed fever.asp

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Answer:

1) What were Semmelweis initial observations?

2) What was the problem at hand

3) What possible explanatory story might Semmelweis come up with

4) How might Semmelweis test his suspicions

5) What might Semmelweis now propose as an explanatory story?

6) How could Semmelweis test his new hypothesis

7) What conclusions can be drawn from Semmelweis experiment

8) How might Semmelweis revise his original hypothesis or his experiment to gain additional information

9) When presented with what appears to be unequivocal evidence in support of hand-washing, why might Semmelweis colleagues have dismissed his ideas?

10) How else might Semmelweis have approached the problem of disseminating his research findings in order to ensure their acceptance.

11) What if any role did serendipity play in Semmelweis's story of childbed fever?

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