Dr vivien thomas his family

In April 1952, at the age of three, I had open heart surgery at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. My life was saved by two remarkable cardiologists, Alfred Blalock, MD, and Helen Taussig, MD, and a third important member of the team: Vivien Thomas, Blalock’s surgical assistant. I had pulmonary stenosis, a congenital heart condition that prevented me from walking more than a few steps. I was always tired, and my lips and fingernails had a bluish tinge. I was the classic “blue baby.” If it had not been for this team and, as I later learned, particularly Vivien Thomas, I would not have lived to my fourth birthday.

Vivien Thomas was born in 1910 in Louisiana; his family later moved to Tennessee. Thomas wanted to go to medical school – only a dream for a 19-year-old African American growing up in the South. In 1929 Thomas was accepted at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial College (now Tennessee State University) but