Medical Pig Heads
I was reading up on how certain treatments and therapies have evolved through time, and I came across a few amazing instances of medical pig-headedness. The first and most amazing instance concerns infection control. One hundred and fifty years ago, one of the major causes of death for young women was ‘childbed fever.’ This illness claimed up to 24% of young women who had just given birth to babies in a hospital setting. The death rate from childbed fever was actually 400% higher (yes that is 400%) in hospitals than it was when patients gave birth at home. We now know that the infection was spread by doctors and medical students doing vaginal exams without washing their hands between patients. They would examine a patient with a vaginal infection, wipe the secretions from their hands on a used towel a nurse would carry from patient to patient, then examine the next patient. I find it stunning that this went on for generations and no one thought that physicians themselves were spreading the disease.
In 1842, a young Boston physician, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the father of future Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, saw a medical student die from what appeared to be childbed fever after doing an autopsy on a young woman who had died from the disease. The medical student had cut himself with a dirty scalpel. Holmes made the connection and wrote a paper urging doctors to wash their hands between patients. He was ridiculed and ignored.
In 1848 a young Viennese Doctor, Ignaz Samelweiss, made similar observations and instructed his staff to wash their hands in chlorinated water prior to examining patients. As a result the death rate went from approximately twenty percent to one point five percent. The death rate was cut buy at least a factor of 10. How did the Viennese medical community react to Samelwiess’ spectacular success in reducing the death rate from childbed fever? He was ridiculed so much he left Vienna and practiced in a small town in Hungary. Hand washing did not become routine practice in medicine until the 1890’s, forty years later.
Amazing but true.
“Well that occurred 150 years ago,” you say, “similar things could never happen in modern medicine.”
Well in the early 1980’s a young doctor, Barry Marshall, tried to prove that many stomach ulcers could be caused by a certain bacterial ( H pylori ) infection. He quoted findings that showed ulcers were associated with this type of bacteria. However, doctors in the 80’s were convinced that the stomach was largely sterile, and any bacteria this young doctor found were a contaminant only, not a cause of disease. They ‘knew’ that all ulcers were caused by stress. Marshall finally proved his hypothesis by swallowing a dose of this bacteria, and developing ulcers himself a few weeks later.
I think there should be an addendum to the Hippocratic oath. Doctors should vow to keep an open mind to new theories. I promise to.
Found you on the home page. I appreciate an interesting read and it appears you are just that, so I added you to my bookmarks.
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Unfortunately, many doctors are so used to fighting battles that it becomes second nature.
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i have found very few drs that do have open minds though, rob. i can’t believe the ridicule and hostility that i faced trying to get my child help when i could see something was drastically wrong. they told me I WAS THE PROBLEM.. until she displayed some of her typical for home behaviour on a child at school. then they very reluctantly diagnosed her as borderline bipolar at aged 6! all the while telling me it was very unusual to display in a child so young. THEN when my four year old son was getting migraines.. omg. drs should have to get headaches like we do so that they would KNOW what this kind of pain is. (and none of this is EVER directed at you, because you always give me great advice and seem willing to listen to what i am telling you.) MUAH lots of love to you my dear.
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Honestly, I don’t even know how a doctor can make any vows with the way things are going in the medical profession. I’m sure the government or insurance companies will find a day to interfere with any vows, too!
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I suffered from H. Pylori so long that it actually broke the stomach barrier and ended up showing up in a urine test. Also in the blood test, but not the antibodies, the actual bacteria itself. And all the while the doctors said “It’s just ulcers, it’s just stress…” I understand the pig pigheadedness of doctors! LOL
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Its sad how many frightening stories people can tell about doctors and dentists. When we find a good doctor or dentist, we will do anything (well, just about anything) to keep them! Twice I’ve had problems that my chiropractors diagnosed after the doctors said “we don’t know what’s wrong.” I went back to the doctors both times and said, please check for this. “I’ll be darned . . . “
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and another good reminder to wash hands FREQUENTLY during this flu season (well, and always anyway!). DO keep an open mind, doc.
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I can’t tell you how many time I’ve hear Sirona’s story being the ex of a Chiropractor. Michael would tell his patients what he thought they had and the patients would go to their doctors and mention it only to have their MDs diagnose them with it. Hmm. Just like I used to have horrific panic attacks for years before I started dating Michael. I was on the pill and he said, stop taking it.
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…I told my MD I think it could be the pill and he said that was impossible. I stopped taking the pill a week later and low and behold the panic attacks slowly tapered off to disappear completely. Hmm. This was a great entry. Looking forward to what Drs are doing now that we will soon find out about in the future.
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Teachers should take a similar oath.
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It makes you wonder what we’re missing now, doesn’t it? ~
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just as long as you don’t sprinkle some bacteria over your morning cereal to prove a point!
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I find that in the current medical system it helps if you are capable of diagnosing yourself, researching the appropriate treatment and then making an appointment to get the prescription. Usually there is no-one more interested in your own wellbeing, familiar with your own symptoms, and interested in finding relief from them, than yourself.
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Maybe if more doctors kept an open mind to new theories, there wouldn’t be so much controversy accepting Dr. Zamboni’s belief that CCSVI, a vascular disorder, is the CAUSE of Multiple Sclerosis. Neurologists just don’t want to hear it. Thank God there’s enough evidence to support his belief and a few US hospitals have started clinical trials. But that pigheadedness you speak of is prevalent.
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