Black History and National Heart Month

February is not only about Heart awareness- it’s also a month where we stop and recognize incredible men and women of color. In honor of Black History Month I can think of no better person to recognize than Dr. Vivien Thomas, the hidden hands and brain behind the world’s first pediatric cardiac surgery.

Before the first pediatric heart surgery was performed at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1944 by Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig, the heart was considered an untouchable organ. While this medical advance was a game changer in congenital heart defects what is less known is the brain behind the ground breaking endeavor belonged to a brilliant African American man named Vivien Thomas who started out as a surgical research technician to Dr. Blalock at Vanderbilt University. When Blalock moved to Johns Hopkins as their Chief of Surgery, he insisted Thomas be allowed to join him. While that demand was met, Thomas was only granted the role and pay of a janitor since Baltimore was strictly segregated. Even without schooling beyond a high school diploma, Thomas worked at a post doctoral level in the research lab, created the tools necessary for heart surgery, and taught Blalock the procedure he had performed numerous times on dogs in the lab. Even after the first surgery was successful, with Thomas talking Blalock through the procedure over his shoulder, he was omitted from all the articles and medical papers on the surgery. Thomas was paid so little he often worked as a bartender at Blalock’s dinner parties, often serving the men he’d taught only hours before.

Thomas went on to train surgical students for many years- surgeons who would become renowned for their skills and would eventually become chiefs of surgical departments across America. It would not be until 1976, 32 years after the first surgery, that Thomas would be granted an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins.

There are many congenital heart defects that use the Blalock-Taussig (BT) Shunt as a repairing device- up until 2003, it was exclusively used in the Norwood procedure. Liam currently has one which delivers blue blood to his lungs to be oxygenated (it’s the defining characteristic of the Super Glenn). I am beyond grateful to Thomas for his nearly unrecognized labors and what it has done to extend the life of my son and the children of so many other parents for nearly 75 years.

If you need a good movie to watch on a cold day this month, I suggest you look up Something the Lord Made, which chronicles the life of Dr. Vivien Thomas and the surgery successes alongside and in the shadow of Blalock.