'Month by month the number of soldiers dying of diseases in the hospitals begins to fall as the conditions in those hospitals are improved. 'Because what it shows is how after changes to the sanitary conditions in the hospitals, the story begins to change. 'This other diagram offers from hope,' Professor Olusoga said. It is clear from the second illustration how deaths from preventable illnesses the following year plummeted. Whilst her first damning illustration showed data from April 1854 to March 1855, the second showed deaths after the Sanitary Commission were sent to the conflict to improve conditions. Professort Olusoga said in the programme: 'What we instantly understand from this diagram is that the big killer in the Crimea is disease.' Deaths from preventable illnesses far outstripped those from both war wounds and other causes.
She irrefutably showed that the main killer was disease.
Presenter and historian David Olusoga argues in the programme that while Semmelweis presented his findings in boring 'statistical tables', Nightingale had more success – and prompted a cleanliness revolution – by converting her data into 'vivid diagrams'.Įach 'petal' represented a different month, while each block of colour showed the number of soldiers who had died from different causes. Semmelweis was shunned by the medical community in Vienna, Austria, even after demonstrating in 1846 how deaths among women giving birth plummeted when doctors treating them washed their hands first. The diagram, which the nurse created herself in 1857, revealed the remarkable impact of improving cleanliness levels: deaths from preventable infection dropped by 99 per cent.Īt the time, the medical profession were largely ignorant about the threat posed by invisible germs and so conditions in hospitals were appalling, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths from disease and infection.īut the last episode of Extra Life: A Short History of Living Longer – which airs on BBC Four tonight – contrasts Nightingale's success with the earlier plight of Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis. Now, a new documentary sheds light on how Nightingale's Rose Diagram – which showed how the deaths of British soldiers wounded in the Crimean War plummeted when hospital sanitary conditions were improved.
Florence Nightingale is fondly remembered as the 19th Century pioneer who transformed chaotic, unclean hospitals and revolutionised nursing.īut how she did it – by harnessing data and presenting it in a beautiful, persuasive way – is less well-known.
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