In the maternity wards of 19th-century Vienna, death stalked new mothers with terrifying regularity. Women who had survived childbirth would develop fever, chills, and abdominal pain within days of delivery. Most would die within a week. Doctors called it "childbed fever," and they accepted it as an unavoidable tragedy of motherhood. One Hungarian physician refused to accept this fate. Ignaz Semmelweis would discover a simple solution that could save countless lives—but his revolutionary idea would destroy his career and drive him to madness.