Virginia Apgar

She spent her free time playing and making musical instruments which included violin, viola, and cello.

Apart from that she also had interests in golf, fishing, photography and gardening. She died at the age of 65 in New York on 7 August, 1974. She was suffering from liver cirrhosis.

Virginia Apgar was born in Westfield, New Jersey on June 7, 1909 and she was the third and youngest child of Charles Emory Apgar and Helen May Apgar.

Her father was a businessman but also had a laboratory in his basement which he used for experimenting with radio waves and electricity. This could be the reason why she developed an early interest in science.

She learnt music from her family members and actively played orchestra in Westfield High School and participated in school athletics. She graduated from school in 1925.

Upon deciding on becoming a doctor, she joined the Mount Holyoke College and graduated in 1929. She supported herself throughout graduation by working as a librarian and waitress and a few other jobs.

She had to borrow money and got herself into a financial debt to continue her studies after getting into Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (CUCPS) in September 1929. At that time, United States was going to be hit for a decade of economic crisis because of the Great Depression that continued from 1929 till 1939.

Virginia Apgar received her medical degree in 1933 and stood fourth in her class. Because of the financial debt, she had to consider alternative means to support herself while going forward with her medical career. As the medical profession was male dominated at that time and considering that even male doctors had a tough time finding jobs, she considered anesthesiology as a safe field. Anaesthesiology is the process of numbing an area of the body, or making patients lose consciousness before a surgery. It is administered by anaesthesiologists.

At that time, nurses mainly administered anesthesia but doctors had also started doing it. The then-CUCPS’s surgery chairman Allen Whipple thought Virginia Apgar had the potential to take up anaesthesiology and advised for it. She completed her certification in 1937.

By choosing anesthesia, her job was secured and she was chosen as the director of the newly formed division of anesthesia in 1938 at Columbia University. However, it was rather challenging as in those days anaesthesiologists were treated inferior to normal doctors. She expanded the department with more doctors and secured a funding in 1941 for the department.

After a few years, a new department for training and research was formed for anesthesia but another male doctor was chosen as the head of the department in 1949 and Virginia Apgar was appointed a full professor in the university, making her the first woman to hold such a prestigious position. She held the position till 1959.

Meanwhile in 1953, she invented the renowned ‘Apgar score’ that assesses newborns so that they can be treated immediately after birth in case any fatal health abnormalities are found. The infants are evaluated at one minute and again at five minute intervals after delivery and scored accordingly. On finding a lesser score, the infants are re-evaluated. This process minimises the chances of infant death. The infant’s Appearance (colour of skin), Pulse, Grimace, Activity (muscle tone) and Respiration are evaluated which helps to decide if the child needs special medical attention.

Virginia Apgar was the founder of Apgar Scoring System for newborns that evaluates each infant’s breathing, heart rate, colour, muscle tone and reflexes to find out if it needs special medical attention.

She brought to mainstream notice the significance of birth defects and spent her life writing scientific articles and educating people about the seriousness of birth defects and premature births. The book ‘Is My Baby All Right?’ which she co-authored with Joan Beck was one of her major contributions to medical science.