The Apgar Score: Rejected by Harvard, She Wrote Medicine's Newborn Test on a Cafeteria Card

bigaiguy · x · 2026-11-03

The story behind the Apgar score: Virginia Apgar was rejected by Harvard Medical School, graduated fourth in Columbia's class of 90 in 1933, and became Columbia's first female full professor of medicine.

At the time, delivery rooms focused entirely on the mother. When a medical student mused that someone should evaluate newborns, Apgar sketched five signs on a tray card—breathing, heart rate, muscle tone, reflexes, color—each scored 0-2, taken 60 seconds after birth. She presented it in 1952 and published in 1953 (the attached image shows the original paper).

Facing pushback that obstetricians would over-score their own deliveries, she had neutral observers like nurses do the scoring; a 5-minute check was added later. She died in 1974, and the score is still used worldwide.

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The Apgar Score: Rejected by Harvard, She Wrote Medicine's Newborn Test on a Cafeteria Card

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