Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty and racism to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country’s most prominent surgeons.
African-American surgical technician who developed the procedures used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease) in the 1940s.
Dr.Vivien Theodore Thomas
Dr.Vivien Theodore Thomas August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985 was born to Mary Eaton and William Marco Thomas in New Iberia, La., and the family moved to Nashville, Tenn., when he was 2. At 13, he was paid to work for his carpenter father after school and in summer, letting him save for college Thomas was so impressed as a youth by his family's physician that he pledged to "be like him." He hoped one day to become a surgeon. A bank failure during the early days of the Great Depression wiped away his medical-school savings and nearly his dream. He had scraped together the money for his medical education by working after school and as an orderly in a private infirmary.Thomas planned to enter Tennessee State College after his high school graduation in 1929, but the stock market crashed, and he was laid off and unable to find another job.
In a few months, a friend who worked at Vanderbilt -- which only whites could attend -- told him there was an opening to assist Blalock, though he was warned the surgeon was "hell to work with." Thomas met him in the experimental surgery lab. On his first day of work, Thomas assisted Blalock with a surgical experiment on a dog. At the end of Thomas's first day, Blalock told Thomas they would do another experiment the next morning. Blalock told Thomas to "come in and put the animal to sleep and get it set up". Within a few weeks, Thomas was starting surgery on his own. Thomas was classified and paid as a janitor, despite the fact that by the mid-1930s, he was doing the work of a Postdoctoral researcher in the lab.
Thomas and Blalock did groundbreaking research into the causes of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock. This work later evolved into research on crush syndrome and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War II. In hundreds of experiments, the two disproved traditional theories which held that shock was caused by toxins in the blood. Blalock, a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, had theorized that shock resulted from fluid loss outside the vascular bed and that the condition could be effectively treated by fluid replacement.
Assisted by Thomas, he was able to provide incontrovertible proof of this theory, and in so doing, he gained wide recognition in the medical community by the mid-1930s. At this same time, Blalock and Thomas began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery, defying medical taboos against operating upon the heart. It was this work that laid the foundation for the revolutionary lifesaving surgery they were to perform at Johns Hopkins a decade later.
Thomas and Dr. Blalock succeeded in proving that the crush syndrome of which a lot of patients were dying was not due to bleeding as generally admitted, but to the muscular toxins emission. After the experiment of the vascular reparation for that disease on animals without success, Blalock was able to confirm that hypothesis and he has been acknowledged worldwide. That discovery allowed saving thousands of lives during the 1939-1945 World War II.
Dr. Blalock accepted a position as a senior surgeon at John Hopkins, the best medical school in the USA where he asked Thomas to come along. When he arrived in Baltimore, in the University location, with his wife and his two daughters, Vivien Thomas faced an ambiance of racism and segregation worse than in the South. He suffered to find accommodation.
In 1941, the move to Johns Hopkins University, shocking Baltimore's segregated society. They began searching for a cure for blue baby syndrome, a heart defect that reduced circulation and led to death.
In 1943, Dr. Blalock was approached by Dr. Helen Taussig, a cardiologist pediatrician who was seeking for solutions to solve a complex heart problem called tetralogy of Fallot, which makes the child look blue because of the lack of oxygen in the blood, hence the term “blue baby”. She mentioned the possibility of a surgical operation by reconnecting the blood vessels. Blalock assigned Vivien Thomas to conduct research on the matter.
Thomas carried out 200 operations on dogs that he, himself, turned into blue beforehand and was able to create a connection between the blood vessels that treated the disease. He succeeded in proving that the surgery to correct the problem does not lead to death and persuaded Blalock, who carried out only one experimental surgery in this matter, to operate on human beings.
Thomas adjusted surgical tools so that they could be used on human beings and on the 29th November 1944, Vivien Thomas who was 34 by then assisted Dr. Blalock, 45 by then, during a surgical operation on an 18 years old teenager. As per Blalock’s request, Thomas stood behind his shoulder and was guiding his gestures during the operation. After 3 surgeries, the method was mastered and success was met. The whole world saluted that innovation called “anastomosis of Blalock-Taussig”. Thomas was not mentioned and his contribution was ignored by Blalock and the University.
Vivien Thomas created other surgical methods and invented instruments for heart operations. Thomas taught several surgeons known worldwide. Underpaid, Vivien had a second job as a waiter and often was serving his own students at the receptions organized by Dr. Blalock. He ended up by being the highest paid technician of Johns Hopkins University and attained an honorary PhD in 1976 before being appointed as a senior surgeon instructor. He assisted Levi Watkins when the latter developed the implantable defibrillator.
People didn’t really know about him. What he did should have been written down in record books forever. He was a person that never went to college but still had knowledge about a person's health and well-being. He was a doctor's assistant, making barely enough money to feed his family. But he didn’t care because he knew deep inside of himself that something was waiting for him, something spectacular.
"In the context of Jim Crow segregation, Thomas shines as an example of self-motivation, persistence and doing whatever it takes," Andrea Kalin, president of Spark Media and director of a film documentary with the same title as Thomas' memoir, told IBD. "He was not a product of his times, as is often said of people who achieve great things. He was a product of his own brilliance, persistence and inner drive. Instead of wallowing in the disappointment of not being able to become a doctor, he threw himself into research that would revolutionize cardiac surgery."
Vivien Thomas wasn’t treated fairly, but he didn’t let that stop him. He kept on pursuing his goal. He was presented with the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws by the Johns Hopkins University in 1976. Sadly, he died in 1985. He left behind his wife Clara Flanders Thomas and two daughters.
𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐝𝐞
The HBO made for television “Something the Lord Made” starring Mos Def as Vivien Thomas exposed many to the history-making Vivien Thomas.
Tell IT~Tuesday: Vivien Thomas
NHD Nationals 2016 -- Vivien Thomas and the Blue Babies
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivien_Thomas
https://myhero.com/Vivien_Thomas_hside_es_07_ul
https://www.investors.com/news/management/leaders-and-success/vivien-thomas-pioneered-surgery-that-saved-millions-of-lives/
https://alchetron.com/Alfred-Blalock
http://www.afterthealtarcall.com/category/dr-vivien-thomas/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bal-blackhistory-thomas-story.html
http://en.lisapoyakama.org/vivien-thomas-inventor-of-the-blue-baby-syndrome-treatment/
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2017/02/19/thomas-another-hidden-figure-in-black-history/
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