Dr. Levi Watkins Jr

Pioneering Black physician Dr. Levi Watkins Jr., whose invention of the automatic implantable defibrillator forever changed the world of cardiothoracic surgery, On February 4, 1980, he and  Dr.Vivien Thomas were the first to successfully implant an automatic defibrillator in a human patient at Johns Hopkins University. 

                           Dr. Levi Watkins Jr

"Levi was a son of the South who was birthed in the middle of segregationist America and the middle of a civil rights movement and became somebody who defied the limits of the expectations of him," said former Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who first met Dr. Watkins in the 1980s on a picket line calling for better treatment of African-Americans in the criminal justice system.

Dr. Watkins was outspoken yet humble, those who knew him said. He never took his success for granted and worked tirelessly to help create the next generation of African-American doctors and activists. Dr. Watkins’ experiences fueled his determination to increase opportunities for African American and other minority students and doctors in the field. According to Johns Hopkins, largely due to his efforts, by 1983, minority representation at the school had increased by 400 percent. He also championed diversity nationally through his work on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program, whose chief aim was diversity.

Dr. Watkins was born in Parsons, Kansas to Levi Watkins, Sr. (1911–1994)and Lillian Varnado (1917–2013). He grew up with five siblings: two brothers, James Watkins and Donald V. Watkins Sr., and three sisters, Doristine L. Minott, Emma Pearl McDonald, and Annie Marie Garraway. The family moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where his father served as president of Alabama State College [HBCU] from 1962 to 1983 and his mother worked as a high school teacher. As a child, Watkins was baptized by Reverend Ralph Abernathy in Birmingham, Alabama. Reverend Abernathy served as a leader in civil rights and worked diligently with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Watkins was the valedictorian of his class at Alabama State Laboratory High School. There he got his first taste of the civil rights movement. He met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the age of 8 when he and his family attended Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, where Dr. King was the pastor. When he grew older, Dr. Watkins would act as a driver, shuttling the pastor around town. Disheartened by the injustices he saw, Dr. Watkins would later join Dr. King's movement,

He attended Tennessee State University as an undergraduate, studying biology. He was motivated to seek a career in the medical field by a Biology professor at Tennessee State University. Watkins graduated from Tennessee State University with a degree in Biology and applied to the University of Alabama School of Medicine, but was rejected. Instead, he attended the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and became the first African American to obtain a medical degree from that institution. It was an experience he described over the years as isolating and lonely but would be the first of many milestones.

Watkins began his medical residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1971. There, he became chief resident of cardiac surgery, acting as the first African American chief resident at the university. Two years after his research on angiotensin blockers at Harvard, Watkins returned to Johns Hopkins and joined the admissions department in 1979. In 1980, he began his work on the defibrillator, with Dr.Vivien Thomas, which he improved upon during this time at Johns Hopkins. Watkins also used this time to enhance techniques for open heart surgery, many of which are still used today. He was named a professor of cardiac surgery in 1991, and concurrently held the post of Associate Dean of the School of Medicine until his retirement in 2013.

In 1993, his father, Levi Watkins Sr., had a stroke and required vascular surgery. His siblings requested that Watkins perform the surgery, as they knew he was an exceptional cardiac surgeon. He prayed before the surgery, which resulted in success.

From his earliest days at Johns Hopkins, Watkins played a pivotal part in changing the institution's role in medical education. In 1975, at the request of newly appointed dean Richard Ross, Watkins and Earl Kidwell, a fellow African-American faculty member, launched a concerted nationwide effort to recruit talented minority students to the school of medicine. The success of the Johns Hopkins minority recruitment campaign quickly became a model followed by other medical schools.

Watkins died in Baltimore on April 11, 2015, at the age of 70, due to a heart attack and subsequent stroke. Today, much of his work is still represented in the field of medicine. Watkins contributed to the advancement of surgical techniques and to the defibrillator, which is all still used today. In addition, his work on angiotensin blockers has helped many patients in need of treatment for congestive heart failure, even those who are unable to tolerate other drugs.


           Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Levi Watkins Jr.


   Dr. Levi Watkins, Jr. (1945-2015) - Breaking Down Walls in Medicine


                   Juneteenth 2010 - Levi Watkins Jr., MD


       Memorial service celebrating the life of Dr. Levi Watkins Jr.


Sources :
https://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/specialcollections/history-of-medicine/throughtime/items/show/2098?tags=surgery
https://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/04/27/dr-levi-watkins-johns-hopkins-trailblazing-black-doctor-dead-at-70/
https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/obituaries/bs-hs-levi-watkins-20150411-story.htmlhttps://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/2015/04/27/dr-levi-watki ns-johns-hopkins-trailblazing-black-doctor-dead-at-70/
https://lasentinel.net/dr-levi-watkins-johns-hopkins-trailblazing-black-doctor-dead-at-70.html
https://afam.nts.jhu.edu/people/Watkins/watkins.html
https://portraitcollection.jhmi.edu/portraits/watkins-jr-levi2
http://tnstatenewsroom.com/archives/17175
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi_Watkins