Virginia Apgar Was Told Women COULDN'T Be Surgeons

Told a woman could never be a surgeon, she invented the test that saves newborns instead.

Virginia Apgar was a gifted young surgeon, and a woman in the 1930s.

Her mentor told her bluntly a woman would never make a living as a surgeon.

So he steered her into anesthesia, then a low-status job no one respected.

In the delivery room she saw a quiet horror: struggling newborns were often given up on.

No one checked if a baby was really healthy, so she built a simple test.

In one minute, five quick checks scored a newborn and flagged the ones needing help.

The Apgar Score spread to hospitals everywhere, becoming the first thing done at birth.

Babies once quietly written off were now saved in their first seconds of life.

The woman barred from surgery had saved more lives than any scalpel ever could.

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