MARCH 14

To me, 74 years doesn't seem that long ago - it was three years before I was born.   On this date in 1942, Dr. Orvan Hess was the first to successfully use penicillin to break infection.

A 33 year-old woman was dying and no doctor knew what to do about it.  She had a fever they could not break. Dr. Hess decided that there was nothing to do except to try this experimental drug.  He injected her with penicillin and her fever broke the next day.  The woman died in 1999 at the age of 90.  It changed the world forever.

Dr. Hess went on to become a clinical professor at the Yale Medical School.  There, he developed the first fetal heart monitor.  It became a standard test in obstetrics and still is today.  What a mark this man left on the world.

*o*