Unclean Hands Quotes

“As for the disease that was the mission of his lifework, its victims continued to fester and die in great numbers because of the stubborn ignorance of the medical establishment throughout most of the world for the next two decades. But then the tide turned as a more enlightened generation of physicians assumed control, so that by the 1890s the mortality rates in hospitals in Europe and the United States had declined to levels seen with home deliveries.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“Two years passed for Ignác with what he considered to be desperate drudgery and constant frustrations with the bureaucracy of an almost hopelessly backward medical system. He still felt estranged from his colleagues, like a persona non grata. He took it personally. This was the last thing he expected in his home city when he impulsively fled back to it.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“The events of March 1848 roused in Ignác a measure of latent Magyar patriotism. Perhaps it was fueled by his growing antipathy for Viennese elitism. In any case, Ignác proudly joined the academic legion and had himself fitted for a uniform. And he took to sometimes actually wearing the uniform when giving lectures at the medical school.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“At the same time, all around him, he saw obstinate, arrogant men with the power to do the right things yet lacking the conscience to do so.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“He sprung to his feet, overcome with his moment of breathtaking insight. Maybe puerperal fever wasn’t caused only by the transmission of material from cadavers. Maybe it could also be transmitted from one live person to another.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“giving credit to Klein, I am afraid I won’t have his support for much longer.” “All right, all right. I understand why you feel a need to be deferential to Klein. But I also see how detached he is and how terribly hard you are working. It seems like you are”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“The antiseptic scrubbing protocol was introduced in the middle of May 1847.49 And then the women stopped dying. Only on occasional days in the last two weeks of May did a single patient succumb. The abrupt drop in the mortality rate was plain to see, and practically miraculous.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“Yes,” he continued, “we have been unwittingly contributing to the deaths of these unfortunate women. I myself feel unspeakable guilt. But shame must be replaced by scientific solutions to prevent future occurrences. So,”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“sign on the wall just outside the entrance to the First Division, where antiseptic-solution-filled basins had been placed on two tables: “ALLE ARTZE MÜSSEN IHRE HANDE MIT CHLORKALK WASSEN” (“All medical practitioners must wash hands with chlorine.”) Hand brushes for scrubbing and towels were placed next to the basins. Ignác stationed himself there, arms folded over his chest, awaiting the arrival of the students from the morgue.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“thoroughly scrubbing them with the most powerful disinfectant solution available and for as long as it took to expunge all traces of the smell of cadavers. He now set about single-mindedly researching what would be the most effective antiseptic.38”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“through hands contaminated with cadaveric particles.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“frequent and thorough physical exams of the women in labor. That would take precedence over any other consideration! This is after all, as Professor Klein has said repeatedly, a teaching hospital. A teaching hospital, first and foremost, and there was to be no relaxation of Klein’s directives.” “Were there other differences in their practices?” “Well, another big one was how they followed hospital and university policies,” added”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“So when he came to Vienna as chief, he taught his students to perform pelvic exams on the women only when absolutely needed and then to do them only with the utmost gentleness, preferably without the use of any instruments.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“And why does this only happen in the First Division?” asked Skoda. “That’s quite simple. As you know, midwives are not allowed to dissect actual cadavers or perform autopsies. That’s been the policy for a very long time, I believe. They are taught pelvic anatomy using only phantoms, those authentic-appearing, painted, wax models. So their hands don’t become contaminated with cadaveric”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“I am sad to conclude that there is only one solution to our problem,” responded Klein. “For now, until these young people assimilate to the cultural expectations of our Viennese medical community, we must severely curtail their admission to study at the Allgemeine”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“I am quite amazed that you are spending time like this with a dying woman. I am very impressed, young man. But how can we stop these deaths?”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“The injustices of our society are glaringly on display in our maternity wards.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“By the fall of 1845, more than 300 autopsies of women who had died of puerperal fever had been performed, most by Ignác and some by Kolletschka. Ignác’s diligence and productivity had been extraordinary, especially since he did all this before his regular work days began. A few common threads were becoming clearly apparent.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“The crafty old fox is planning to use me for something disingenuous. He impressed himself with how he was beginning to understand the underhanded workings of academic medicine.”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“The newborns were delivered in rapid succession, with used instruments and dressings. The doctors and medical students often didn’t even wipe their hands between procedures, much less wash them. After the women”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands

“unfolding medical tragedy that was to change the rest”
― Andrew Schafer, Unclean Hands