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PHOTO COLLAGE: CHRISTOPHER B. SHORT. BABIES: CORBIS , GETTY IMAGES. THE ALAN MASON
CHESNEY MEDICAL ARCHIVES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTION (VIVIEN THOMAS).
Man
Who
a
Thous
Babies
4 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • NOVEMBER 2015
A hero is a
person who is
courageous,
outstanding, or noble. In what way was
Vivien Thomas a hero?
AS YOU READ,
THINK ABOUT:
Saved sand
VIVIEN THOMAS WAS ONE OF THE GREAT HEROES
OF 20TH-CENTURY MEDICINE. SO WHY HAVEN’T
YOU HEARD OF HIM? BY LAUREN TARSHIS
O
ne-year-old Eileen Saxon was dying. Tiny and
weak, she weighed just 9 pounds. Her lips and
fingernails were dark blue. She’d been born with
a heart condition that starved her body of

oxygen. It was clear that she had little time left.
SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • NOVEMBER 2015
5
African Americans and
unique. At the time—the early
other minorities was
1940s—thousands of so-called
widespread. Much of the
“blue babies” were born each year.
country was segregated—
Most lived no more than a few
black Americans were
years, because doctors had no way
kept separate from white
to help them.
Americans. Black people
That was about to change.
were banned from most
On November 29, 1944, Eileen
white schools and nearly
was wheeled into an operating
all universities. They were
room at Johns Hopkins Hospital
turned away from hospitals,
in Baltimore, Maryland. People
barred from sitting in the
watched from a glassed-in gallery
front of buses, forbidden to
above, eager to witness the first
swim in public pools
attempt ever made to perform
or set foot in many
surgery on a blue baby’s heart.
public libraries.
Three doctors hovered over Eileen,
There were
plus a team of the hospital’s most
some African-
experienced nurses and other
American
medical staff.
doctors, but
When it came to the success of
they were
the operation, though, the most
not allowed
important person in the room was
to work in
not a doctor or a nurse. He was a
most hospitals,
soft-spoken young man, trained as
including Johns
a carpenter, who stood on a stool
Hopkins.
looking over the chief surgeon’s
Yet in the
shoulder. This young man—Vivien
operating room
Thomas—had never been to
on that November day, it
medical school or even college, but
was Vivien Thomas, an African-
each time the surgeon was ready
American man, whose knowledge
to make a cut or stitch into Eileen’s
would make the difference between
tiny chest, he would listen for
life and death for Eileen Saxon.
one of the most important figures
In a healthy heart,
blood travels through the
heart to the lungs, where
it receives oxygen. Then
the blood travels back
through the heart and
out into the rest of the
body. A blue baby’s heart
has defects that allow blood
without enough oxygen to
travel through the body.
medical school. Since the age of
11, he had worked weekends and
Thomas’s instructions.
Today, Thomas is considered
Ñ THE HEART
Shattered Plans
Thomas grew up in Nashville,
afternoons as a carpenter, saving
money for his education.
in 20th-century medicine. Back in
Tennessee, a segregated city
1944, however, almost no medical
with a vibrant African-American
high school graduation, Thomas’s
school in America would have
community. He attended Pearl
plans were shattered by the Great
accepted him as a student.
High School, which was known for
Depression. This national economic
its rigorous standards. Thomas
crisis led to millions of Americans
graduated with top grades and
losing their jobs. Banks closed their
planned to attend college and then
doors, and many people, including
A Time of Prejudice
In the 1940s, racism against
6 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • NOVEMBER 2015
But in 1930, the year of his
SHUTTERSTOCK (HEART); THE ALAN MASON CHESNEY MEDICAL
ARCHIVES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTION (SURGERY)
Eileen’s condition was not
Thomas; it paid one-third
treatment. Their discovery was
of what Thomas had earned
celebrated around the world,
as a carpenter, or the same
and, within a few months, Blalock
amount earned by the
was invited to become chief of
Vanderbilt hospital janitors.
surgery at one of the country’s best
But jobs were scarce, and,
hospitals: Johns Hopkins.
besides, Thomas wanted
Blalock accepted the position
to start college as soon as
on one condition: that Thomas
possible. He figured he
could come work with him.
wouldn’t be working for
Blalock for long.
Little did he know.
Thomas was married by then,
with two young children. With
some reluctance, he and his
family moved north to Maryland.
No Ordinary
Worker
Blalock quickly
There, Thomas faced the same
discrimination he’d left behind.
He even had a hard time finding a
realized that Thomas was
place to live. And Johns Hopkins
extraordinarily gifted.
had a long history of segregation.
Blalock began teaching
Yet Thomas found the work with
Thomas about conducting
Blalock as exciting as ever.
experiments, and Thomas set about
Õ THE SURGERY
Alfred
Blalock, Helen Taussig, and
Vivien Thomas pioneered a surgery that
rerouted the blood around the heart
defect that caused blue baby syndrome.
YOUSUF KARSH (ALFRED BLALOCK, HELEN TAUSSIG); THE ALAN MASON CHESNEY
MEDICAL ARCHIVES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTION (VIVIEN THOMAS)
Thomas, lost their life savings. With
no money and no carpentry work
learning all he could. He worked
16-hour days and often headed
A Call to Action
Soon after moving, Thomas and
home with a stack of medical
Blalock met a woman who would
textbooks, which he studied late
change the course of their work—
into the night. Within a few years,
and their lives. Helen Taussig
Thomas was designing experiments
was the first female pediatric
to test his and Blalock’s theories.
cardiologist in the U.S. She’d
Outside the lab, Thomas dealt
already saved many lives, but could
to be found, Thomas was desperate
with the daily humiliations of living
do nothing for blue babies. Taussig
for a job. His search led him to the
in the segregated South. Inside
challenged Blalock to design a
office of a brash and brilliant young
the lab, amid the bright lights and
surgical procedure that would
doctor named Alfred Blalock at
test tubes, Thomas and Blalock
create a new pathway for blood to
Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
were true partners. (Yet after six
travel between the heart and lungs.
Blalock came from a rich and
years, Thomas was still making
It was an enormous challenge.
well-known white Southern family.
only a menial wage. What’s more,
Heart surgery was considered the
At 32, he was already the head of
he discovered that in Vanderbilt’s
“Mount Everest” of medicine—few
Vanderbilt’s department of surgery.
official records, his job title was
had attempted it, and nobody had
He needed help in his laboratory,
janitor, the only job the school saw
succeeded.
where he was studying a condition
fit for a black man.)
called shock, from which many
patients died during surgery.
Blalock’s job offer didn’t impress
In 1940, Blalock and Thomas at
Over the next few months,
while Blalock was busy with his
last discovered one of the causes
new responsibilities,
of shock and designed an effective
Thomas labored in the lab.

SCOPE.SCHOLASTIC.COM • NOVEMBER 2015
7
blue skin turned a healthy
pink. “You’ve never seen
anything so dramatic,”
Thomas would later recall.
“It was almost a miracle.”
Within months,
babies across the country
were being rushed to
Johns Hopkins. Blalock
became famous. Thomas
continued his work in the
lab, in the background.
Ó
Blalock died in 1964,
THE UNSUNG HERO Inside his lab,
Vivien Thomas was respected for his intellect and
leadership. But outside the lab, Thomas faced prejudice
and countless humiliations. How does the juxtaposition
of these two photos show how different Thomas’s life was
inside and outside the lab?
but Thomas remained at
Johns Hopkins until 1979.
By then he was a legend at
the medical school, and a
highly respected professor.
Johns Hopkins finally
syndrome in animals so that he
But they had never tried it on a
human. Eileen would be the first.
recognized Thomas and awarded
him an honorary doctorate 32 years
could then work on treating it. He
Thomas expected to watch
after the first blue-baby surgery.
designed new medical instruments
the surgery from the gallery, but
Thomas never became rich
when he could find none delicate
Blalock wanted Thomas next
or famous, but he blazed a trail
enough for his work.
to him. Thomas, after all, had
for other African Americans in
performed the operation hundreds
medicine, including his own
received a frantic call from Taussig.
of times on animals. Blalock had
nephew, who entered Johns
There was a little girl in the infant
After about a year, Blalock
done the entire procedure once.
Hopkins School of Medicine in
ward of the hospital, lying in an
Throughout the operation,
1983. Thomas also trained two
oxygen tent. She was dying. Her
Blalock asked for Thomas’s help.
generations of heart surgeons,
name was Eileen Saxon.
When the final clamp was removed
some of whom are still operating.
By then, Thomas and Blalock
and the blood began flowing along
His portrait now hangs across from
had developed the procedure that
its new route, Thomas and Blalock
Blalock’s in the medical school.
Taussig had asked for. They’d
stood shoulder to shoulder, their
found a way to attach one artery
attention fixed on their tiny patient.
Thomas died in 1985, but his
legacy lives on, beat after beat,
to another, giving the blood a new
Had the surgery worked?
in the hearts of the thousands of
pathway to the lungs.
Seconds passed. Eileen’s sickly
people he helped save.
WRITING CONTEST
The U.S. Post Office is releasing a new postage stamp. It’s looking for a historical figure who
overcame obstacles and contributed something important to society. Write an essay arguing
that Vivien Thomas should be on the new stamp. Send your essay to HEART CONTEST.
Five winners will get Breakthrough! by Jim Murphy. See page 2 for details.
GET THIS
ACTIVITY
ONLINE
8 SCHOLASTIC SCOPE • NOVEMBER 2015
•
COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL COLLECTION ESKIND BIOMEDICAL LIBRARY/VANDERBILT
UNIVERSITY. ©THE FAMILY OF CLARE THOMAS (LAB); BETTMANN/CORBIS (SEGREGATION)
He learned to create blue baby