Clinical researchers are often not counted among "scientists," in the public eye, but they are important to practical medical science. Virginia Apgar was just such a researcher and clinician. Born in Westfield, New Jersey, where she also received her early education, Apgar eventually became famous for the development of the Apgar score for new born infants, an innovation that has saved uncountable lives world-wide since its adoption.
Apgar graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 1929 and went on to Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she graduated in 1933. She completed her residency in surgery in 1937, but went into anesthesiology. The head of surgery recommended that she stay out of that profession as he thought women could never be successful there. He did think that Apgar was brilliant and would be needed to upgrade anesthesiology, rather than be wasted on surgery. After training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Belevue, she returned to Columbia and eventually became the first woman to gain a full professorship there.
She turned her attention to obstretics. She did research at Sloane Hospital for Women and then obtained a Masters in Public Health at Johns Hopkins. In 1953 she introduced the Apgar score for newborn infants, based on timed appraisals of health signs. From 1959 until her death she worked for the March of Dimes. In 1964-65 she became an outspoken advocate for vaccination after a major rubella epidemic and she encouraged Rh testing. She was the first women in many areas of medicine, although she never campaigned for women's rights.
She won many honors, including honorary doctorates from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Mount Holyoke, and the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry. She was named Woman of the Year in Science by Ladies Home Journal in 1973. But most of all her work saved countless lives.
As to a personal association I really have none, except that my foster daughter recently received a Masters in Public Health from Johns Hopkins and that my wife and I have been watching a fascinating BBC program "Call the Midwife" that deals with birthing in the poorer part of London during the 1950s. In my opinion we need more programs like this that not only deal with such little known worlds as that of midwifery, but of other professions of both men and women that are overlooked in the search for glamor.
Well, there is another association - both of our daughters were scored using the Apgar scale. It was not invented yet when my wife and I were born.
Internet References:
Dr. Virginia Apgar https://www.nlm.nih.gov/...
The Virginia Apgar Papers http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/...
Virginia Apgar http://en.wikipedia.org/...