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Biography
Biography
Virginia Apgar was born the 7th of June of 1909 on Westfield, New Jersey. From her early years at school, Virginia proved to be a good student and inmediatly she discovered her passion for the science and the medicine. She dedicated her life to study the effect of the anesthetic in pregnant womans and the reasons of the prematures deaths of the babies. Virginia suffered to herself the discrimination of sex in the field of science and medicine.
After adjust in the Westfield High School, she started to study in the Mount Holyoke College, where she specializated in zoology. In 1929 she finished her studies in Mount Holyoke with excellents marks and published more than 60 scientific works and uncountables works for the general press just like the book "Is my baby all right?" in 1972. She recived doctarates honoris, awards of diferents medicate associations and the gold medal of the ex students of the university of Columbia.
She died on August 7, 1974 due to a liver failure at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center.
Apgar score
Apgar score
Virginia is well-know for created the "Apgar score" which reduce child mortality around the world.
in 1953 Virginia studied, developed and published the first scale who evaluates the newborns vitality called Apgar score this test is used twice: one minute after birth and five minutes after birth.
The one minute test provide information about the baby’s physical health and the five minutes test provide information about how the baby has responded to previous resuscitation attempts.
Apgar score evaluated the baby’s color, heart rate, reflexes, muscle tone and respiratory effort. This scale evaluated all this five elements from 0 to 2 with a maximum mark of 10.
Heart rate
Heart rate
- 0: No heart rate.
- 1: Less than 100 beats per minute.
- 2: More than 100 beats per minute.
Respiratory effort
Respiratory effort
- 0: Not breathing.
- 1: Weak cry–may sound like whimpering or grunting.
- 2: Good, strong cry.
Muscle- tone
Muscle- tone
- 0: Limp.
- 1: Some flexing (bending) of arms and legs.
- 2: Active motion.
Reflexes
Reflexes
- 0: No response to airways being stimulated.
- 1: Grimace during stimulation.
- 2: Grimace and cough or sneeze during stimulation.
Color
Color
- 0: The baby’s entire body is blue or pale.
- 1: Good color in body but with blue hands or feet.
- 2: Completely pink or good color.
Total Apgar Score
Total Apgar Score
From 0 to 3 : State of health is critical.
From 4 to 6 : It will be classified as "fairly low".
From 7 to 10 : The state of health is normal.
By Miguel Casado & Juan Lorente
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