Virginia Apgar - The Doctor Who Saved Newborn Lives

Virginia Apgar was a groundbreaking doctor who created the Apgar Score, a simple test that has helped save millions of newborns by checking their health right after birth.

Born in 1909 in New Jersey, she became one of the most important women in medicine during the 1900s. She is best known for creating the Apgar Score, a quick test that doctors and nurses use to check a newborn's health. Thanks to her work, millions of babies around the world have been saved. Virginia Apgar was smart and determined. She went to Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and graduated in 1933. At the time, it was very rare for women to become doctors. Out of her entire class, only four students were women. At first, she wanted to be a surgeon, but her teachers encouraged her to switch to anesthesiology, which is the care of patients before and during surgery. She trained in this new field and returned to Columbia as the first woman to lead its anesthesia division.
By 1949, she became the first female full professor at Columbia’s medical school, a big achievement for any doctor, especially a woman in the 1940s. As an anesthesiologist, she worked closely with babies being born. She noticed that even though more children were surviving, many still died within the first day of life. She wanted to find a way to quickly check which babies needed urgent help right after birth. In 1952, Dr. Apgar created a simple scoring system that became known as the Apgar Score. It looks at five signs of a baby’s health: heart rate, breathing, muscle tone, reflex response, and skin color. Each area gets a score from 0 to 2, and the total is taken at one minute and five minutes after birth. The score tells doctors if the baby is healthy or needs extra care. This idea may seem basic today, but at the time it was revolutionary. The Apgar Score is still used in hospitals around the world.
Later in her life, Dr. Apgar decided to focus on public health. In 1959, she joined the March of Dimes, an organization that helps babies and pregnant women. She went back to school and earned a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University. As Vice President of Medical Affairs at March of Dimes, she worked to prevent birth defects and improve infant health. She encouraged the use of vaccines, like the rubella vaccine, and treatments like RhoGAM to protect babies from certain diseases. Dr. Apgar was also a teacher and writer. She gave lectures around the world and wrote more than 70 medical papers. In 1973, she published a book for parents called Is My Baby All Right?, which helped families understand birth and baby care.
Even though she was a woman in a male-dominated field, Virginia Apgar received many honors during her life. She was named ‘Woman of the Year in Science’ by Ladies’ Home Journal in 1973 and received many honorary degrees. After she died in 1974 from liver disease, people continued to celebrate her work. She was featured on a U.S. postage stamp in 1994 and was added to the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1995. In 2018, she was even honored with a Google Doodle on what would have been her 109th birthday.
Today, her legacy continues. The Virginia Apgar Academy of Medical Educators at Columbia University helps train future doctors. Her Apgar Score is still saving lives every day, and her story continues to inspire people to make a difference in the world. Virginia Apgar showed that one person can change medicine, and save lives, with hard work, kindness, and smart thinking. She opened doors for women in science and made the world safer for newborn babies everywhere.

References:
“Biographical Overview | Virginia Apgar - Profiles in Science.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/cp/feature/biographical-overview.
“Virginia Apgar, M.D.” March of Dimes, www.marchofdimes.org/about-us/mission/history/virginia-apgar-md.
“Virginia Apgar’s Legacy Continues, 50 Years after Her Death.” Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 22 Aug. 2024, www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/virginia-apgars-legacy-continues-50-years-after-her-death.

Key words:
Science, Innovation, Perseverance, Courage, Make a Difference, Face Prejudice, STEAM

Explore ARTEFFECT projects about this Unsung Hero:
Virginia Apgar artworks

Image Citation: Public Domain.