Virginia apgar life biography
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The Life and Legacy of Virginia Apgar ’29
Virginia Apgar ’29 was an obstetric anesthesiologist best known for the Apgar score, a clinical system for evaluating the physical condition of newborns at birth. View her acceptance speech after being named Woman of the Year in Science by the by Ladies Home Journal in 1973.
Read more about her achievements in the field of medicine in the Alumnae Quarterly article “Life Blood.”
The Early Years
The youngest of three children, Virginia Apgar was born and raised in Westfield, New Jersey. She loved playing the violin, a hobby she pursued throughout her life. By the time she graduated from high school, Apgar was determined to be a doctor. She may have been inspired by her father’s scientific hobbies or by her eldest brother’s early death from tuberculosis and another brother’s chronic childhood illness.
Left to right: Apgar with her brother Lawrence, 1912; Playing the viola, a lifelong hobby, 1919; At age 10, 191
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Virginia Apgar, M.D., the first woman to become a full professor at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, designed the first standardized method for evaluating the newborn's transition to life outside the womb—the Apgar Score. Newborn babies still benefit from Dr. Virginia Apgar's groundbreaking research into the effects of anesthesia during childbirth and advocacy on the prevention of birth defects.
By the time she graduated from high school,Virginia Apgar was determined to be a doctor. She may have been inspired bygd her father's scientific hobbies, or by her eldest brother's early death from tuberculosis, and another brother's chronic childhood illness. With the help of several scholarships, she attended Mt. Holyoke College, performing in the college orchestra as a gifted violinist and cellist and graduating with a major in zoology in 1929.
Apgar entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University just before the Wall Street crash of Oct
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Virginia Apgar
American physician and obstetrical anesthesiologist (1909–1974)
Virginia Apgar | |
|---|---|
Virginia Apgar (July 6, 1959) | |
| Born | (1909-06-07)June 7, 1909 Westfield, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | August 7, 1974(1974-08-07) (aged 65) Manhattan, New York, U.S. |
| Education | Mount Holyoke College Columbia University Johns Hopkins University |
| Occupation | Anesthesiologist |
| Years active | 1937–1974 |
| Known for | Inventor of the Apgar score |
| Medical career | |
| Profession | Doctor |
| Field | Anesthesiology, teratology |
| Sub-specialties | Obstetric anesthesiology |
| Notable works | Is My Baby All Right? A Guide to Birth Defects, with Joan Beck |
Virginia Apgar (June 7, 1909 – August 7, 1974) was an American physician,[1][2]obstetricalanesthesiologist[3] and medical researcher,[4] best known as the inventor of the Apgar score, a way to quickly assess the health of a newborn child immediately smärtsam blåsa