A good story will trump statistics every time. "She felt lucky in at least this one thing-it was a Sunday...." That is the beginning of a story that piques curiosity. This book could have opened with, "In that year, 1847, one of every six mothers delivered in the First Division of the Allgemeine Krankenhaus was dying of childbed fever." That would be much less effective as a hook. Nuland knew very well that opening with statistics would not engage readers with his book. Instead Nuland starts with a young girl's story and finishes with Semmelweis's story. Now you know the book opens with one tragedy and (I'll spoil the ending) ends with another. The progression through the death of one girl and her tragedy tells only half of the relevant story for the loss control practitioner. The other half is the failure of Semmelweis's discovery to be accepted by the contemporary medical profession. Semmelweis's tragedy was due to his failure to publish his results, combined with some of his own personal peculiarities, accident of birth and funny accent, as well as other "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."
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