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THE SAVIOUR OF MOTHERS

Past Continuous

Semmelweis’s simple idea was working. He was saving the lives of thousands of women, but he wasn’t becoming a hero.

Was he saving the lives of hundreds of women? No, he wasn’t saving the life of hundreds of women. He was saving the lives of thousands of women.

He was being ignored by the senior doctors and his boss. Semmelweis’s boss was a man named Klein. Klein was thinking that Semmelweis’s idea made him look bad. What was Klein thinking? Klein was thinking that Semmelweis’s idea made him look bad.

Klein was the person who decided that medical students should examine dead bodies on the same days that they treated pregnant women. If Semmelweis’s idea was working, Klein’s decision was wrong.

Therefore, Klein was attacking Semmelweis and his ideas.

Most doctors were thinking that an imbalance of the body’s fluids was the cause of disease.

Semmelweis’s ideas about invisible particles from dead bodies wasn’t fitting with their understanding of health and disease. Some doctors were feeling insulted that Semmelweis was saying that they were not clean.

Were the doctors feeling happy? No, they weren’t feeling happy. They were feeling insulted.

They couldn’t believe that Semmelweis was saying doctors were the cause of the disease. These were highly educated men who were working hard to heal people. Semmelweis was saying that they were killing their patients. This was unbelievable. It was hard to believe, but Klein was successfully attacking Semmelweis’s idea and was destroying his name. Even though Semmelweis’ discovery was saving the life of thousands of women, he was fired from the hospital in 1850.

Was his discovery helping people? Yes, his discovery was saving the lives of thousands of people.

Semmelweis left Austria and returned to Hungary, where he was working as a doctor. He was having similar success in reducing puerperal fever there.

Was Semmelweis having success in Hungary? Yes, he was having similar success in Hungary.

He married, had five children, and was becoming a successful private doctor, but he was not happy. Over the years, he was becoming increasingly angry. He often changed every conversation to the topic of disease and washing hands. He was sending letters attacking doctors all over Europe, who did not accept his ideas. He was calling them murderers and fools.

What was Semmelweis calling the doctors? He was calling them murderers and fools.

He was starting to drink too much and was spending time with prostitutes. He was becoming forgetful and depressed. He also was beginning to attack his family. Maybe he was feeling too much stress.

Was he feeling relaxed? No, he wasn’t feeling relaxed. He was feeling too much stress.

Attacking his family was the beginning of the end for Sammelweis. His was put him into a mental hospital in Austria. Many mental hospitals in the 1850s were terrible places. Sammelweis was trying to leave but the guards tied him an beat him. What was Sammelweis trying to do? Sammelweis was trying to leave.

The beatings were so bad he died two weeks after arriving.