Semmelweis had the insight that if doctors washed their hands between procedures it would drastically cut the death from infection in hospitals. His idea was ignored and he died in an asylum at 47.
Only after his death and the advent of germ theory did this practice become accepted as reducing mortality.
I almost always find these ironic factoids about innovators who die before their idea was fully realized or implemented to be rather depressing, so here is a picture of pop tart cat instead.
