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During the 1930s and '40s, Dr. Virginia Apgar noticed a troubling trend involving newborns.
While the infant mortality rate in the US had declined, the rate of infant deaths within the first 24 hours after birth remained constant. As an obstetric anesthesiologist, Apgar was able to identify physical characteristics that could distinguish healthy newborns from those in trouble.
Apgar's observations led to the development in 1952 of the Apgar score, a quick and convenient method for immediately evaluating how well the newborn weathered the birthing process, especially the effects of obstetric anesthesia.
To honor Apgar's contribution to neonatology -- the medical care of newborn infants -- Google dedicated its Doodle Thursday to the doctor on her 109th birthday.
Generally conducted one and five minutes after birth, the test assigns a score of zero to two for each of five criteria: appearance, pulse, grimace, activity and respiration (APGAR). Scores of seven and higher are generally normal, four to six fairly low, and three and lower are generally regarded as critically low. The test helps medical personnel determine whether a newborn needs immediate medical care.
The test spread through US hospitals in the 1960s, proving a useful measurement for quickly assessing a newborn's physical condition. The technique is still used in hospitals throughout the US.
Apgar graduated fourth in class at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1933, and in 1949 became the first woman named a full professor at the school.
In 1959, she embarked on a second career, earning a master's degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. Armed with her new degree, she went to work at the March of Dimes Foundation, directing research to prevent and treat birth defects.
She also published more than 60 scientific articles and several essays for newspapers and magazines during her career. Her 1972 book Is My Baby All Right? explains the causes and treatment of common birth defects and proposes precautions to help improve the chances of having a healthy baby.
Apgar died at the age of 65 in 1974.
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PIONEERING doctor Virginia Apgar’s extraordinary life has been celebrated as a Google Doodle.
Let’s take a closer look at the ground-breaking physician.
Dr Virginia Apgar is celebrated by Google on her 109th birthday
Who is Dr Virginia Apgar?
Born in New Jersey in 1909 to a musical family, Apgar always had a keen interest in science and left school knowing she wanted to be a doctor.
She initially studied zoology, chemistry and physiology before attending Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
However, she was discouraged from pursuing surgery by Dr Allen Whipple at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center who instead advised her to study anaesthesiology.
She eventually became a leading figure in the fields of anaesthesiology and teratology.
The doctor developed a newborn infant's neonatal prognosis, known as the Apgar Score, which is taken within minutes of birth and has become standard practice in hospitals worldwide.
After starting work in New York in 1933, Dr Apgar was disturbed by the treatment of newborn babies particularly those who were malformed or had troubled breathing.
To her astonishment, infants who were blue or were struggling to breathe were listed as stillborn and left to die.
This prompted the fiercely passionate physician to develop her score, which has a range of zero to ten based on a tot’s condition.
It soon became clear that a baby with a poor rating could be resuscitated, by oxygen and warming, to a good score in around five minutes.
Thanks in part to Apgar’s work, the death rate for newborns in the US has dropped from one in 30 in the 1950s to one in 500 today.
Known for her boundless energy and sense of humour, Dr Apgar never married or had children.
She died of cirrhosis of the liver on August 7, 1974.
Getty - Contributor Dr Virginia Apgar developed the Apgar Score
Why is the American doctor being celebrated by Google?
On June 7, 2018, search giant Google marked what would have been Dr Apgar’s 109th birthday with a Google Doodle.
What is a Google Doodle?
In 1998, the search engine founders Larry and Sergey drew a stick figure behind the second 'o' of Google as a message to that they were out of office at the Burning Man festival and with that, Google Doodles were born.
The company decided that they should decorate the logo to mark cultural moments and it soon became clear that users really enjoyed the change to the Google homepage.
In that same year, a turkey was added to Thanksgiving and two pumpkins appeared as the 'o's for Halloween the following year.
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Now, there is a full team of doodlers, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and classically trained artists who help create what you see on those days.
Among the Doodles published in 2018 were ones commemorating cartographer Abraham Ortelius, Egyptian actor Omar Sharif and St Patrick's Day.
Earlier in the year, the search giant celebrated the Paralympics in 2018 in Pyeongchang with an animated design celebrating each of the sports the winter Paralympians will compete in.
The history of Google Doodles, what they are and where they came from
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Today's Google doodle is celebrating what would have been the 109th birthday of American anesthesiologist Dr Virginia Apgar.
She may not be a well-known name here in the UK but she worked heavily in obstetrics and is responsible for creating the "Apgar score" which is given to newborns to quickly assess their health.
During her career she was the first woman to become a professor at the prestigious Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S) in 1949.
She became committed to lowering the USA's infant mortality rate by trying to investigate the first 24 hours of an infant's life and document trends to distinguish healthy babies from unhealthy ones.
Who was Dr Virginia Apgar?
(Image: Archive Photos)
Born on June 7, 1909, Virginia Apgar grew up in New Jersey, USA in a family devoted to music.
However, there were severe medical problems in her family that led her to develop an interest in science and medicine. Her older brother died from tuberculosis while another suffered from a prolonged chronic illness.
When she graduated in 1925, she knew she wanted to become a doctor and completed a residency in surgery at P&S in 1937.
She was persuaded to go into anesthesiology by P&S Chairman Dr. Allen Whipple who felt the scientific discipline needed advancing and she had the "energy and ability" to help it.
Virginia became involved in treating children and soon provided the contribution to medicine for which she is best known.
The Apgar score
(Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs)
The Apgar score is a way of measuring the health of a baby right after birth and is still used in many hospitals in the US today.
Dr. Apgar and her colleagues gave thousands of babies scores during the 1950s as rate of infant mortality in the US began to climb. By the 1960s, it had become the main shorthand form of recording a child's health - particularly in the first 24 hours of its life.
Here's how the Apgar score works:
"Each newborn is given a score of 0, 1, or 2 (a score of 2 meaning the newborn is in optimal condition, 0 being in distress) in each of the following categories: heart rate, respiration, colour, muscle tone, and reflex irritability.
"Compiled scores for each newborn can range between 0 and 10, with 10 being the best possible condition for a newborn. The scores were to be given to a newborn one minute after birth, and additional scores could be given in five-minute increments to guide treatment if the newborn's condition did not sufficiently improve."
The criteria has even been given the acronym ”Apgar” which stands for Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, Respiration.
Because gestational age is directly related to a child's Apgar score, Dr. Apgar was one of the first at the March of Dimes - a Canadian charitable foundation - to bring the problem of premature birth to mainstream attention. It has now become one of the March of Dimes' top priorities.
Outspoken advocate
Dr. Apgar became an outspoken advocate for universal vaccinations to prevent mother-to-child transmission of rubella during a pandemic that struck the US in the 1960s.
Around 12.5 million people became infected with the disease and Dr. Apgar became dedicated to preventing the further spread of it to any unborn children.
She was known to have a warm bedside manner during her career and remained optimistic even when the odds were stacked against her. Interestingly, Virginia Apgar managed to avoid much of the sexism that existed in the medical industry at the time. She never campaigned publicly against gender inequality but instead chose to lead by example.
Writings and awards
(Image: Google)
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During her career, Dr. Apgar travelled widely and gave lectures across the US. She also published over sixty scientific articles and became well-known in the field of teratology - the study of birth defects.
She co-wrote a book in 1972 called "Is My Baby All Right?" which explained the causes and treatment of a variety of common birth defects. It also proposes precautions to help improve women's chances of having a healthy baby.
She was given three honorary doctorates during her career, from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, Mount Holyoke College and the New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry.
Even during her busy career, she maintained a variety of interests that included music, fishing and stamp collecting. She was an accomplished violinist even took flying lessons in her fifities. And, of course, she has been honoured with a Google doodle in various countries around the world such as the UK and US, celebrating what would have been her 109th birthday.
She never married, and died of cirrhosis of the liver on August 7, 1974.
