Virginia Apgar

Virginia Apgar was an American physician, obstetrical anesthesiologist and medical researcher, best known as the inventor of the Apgar score, a way to quickly assess the health of a newborn child immediately after birth in order to combat infant mortality. In 1952, she developed the 10-point Apgar score to assist physicians and nurses in assessing the status of newborns. Given at one minute and five minutes after birth, the Apgar test measures a child's breathing, skin color, reflexes, motion, and heart rate. A friend said, "She probably did more than any other physician to bring the problem of birth defects out of back rooms." She was a leader in the fields of anesthesiology and teratology, and introduced obstetrical considerations to the established field of neonatology.

7 June 1909

Born on the same birth date (7 June 1909): Jessica Tandy • Peter W. Rodino

Born on the same birth day (7 June): Cafu • Damien Hirst • Dave Navarro • Elizabeth Bowen • Ester Claesson • George Washington Ball (Iowa Democrat) • Jean-Noël Tremblay • Joan Voûte • Jules Deschênes

Born in the same month (June 1909): E. M. S. Namboodiripad • Elmer L. Andersen • Errol Flynn • Georges Rouquier • Infanta Beatriz of Spain • Jessica Tandy • Juan Bosch (politician) • Katherine Dunham • Osamu Dazai • Peter W. Rodino • Wolfgang Reitherman • Yechezkel Kutscher