Vienna, 1847: A Hungarian doctor discovers childbed fever's cause is doctors' unclean hands. He mandates hand washing, drastically reducing deaths, but faces fierce opposition from the medical establishment until tragic consequences.
Vienna, 1847. When a young Hungarian obstetrician discovers that the cause of the deadly child-bed fever epidemic among· women is the lack of hygiene in doctors' and students' hands, he introduces hand-washing protocols. As deaths plummet to almost zero percent, he faces the ferocious opposition of the medical community, until the extreme consequences.