Early life Dr. Vivien T. Thomas was born in New Iberia, Louisiana. The grandson of a slave, he attended Pearl High School (which was named for a Union sympathizer Joshua Fenton Pearl and is now known as Pearl Cohn Magnet High School) in Nashville in the 1920s. Even though it was part of a racially segregated system, the school provided him with a decent education. Thomas had hoped to go to college and study to become a doctor, but the Great Depression derailed his plans. He had worked at Fisk University in the summer of 1929 doing carpentry, but was laid off in the fall. In the wake of the stoLXC
Meeting Alfred Blalock
Before meeting Dr. Blalock, Had I married Clara and two Daughters. Classified WAS Thomas, and Paid, as a janitor, Despit The Fact That by the mid 1930s I WAS doing the work of a postdoctoral researcher in Blalock's lab. Together
I did groundbreaking research and Blalock Into the Cause of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock. Later Evolved Into This research work on Crush syndrome and saved the lives of Thousands of soldiers on the Battlefields of World War II. Executed flawlessly in Hundreds of experiments, the two traditional disprove held Theories That Which Caused by shock WAS toxins in the blood. Blalock, a Highly original scientific thinker and Something of an iconoclast, theorizes That Had shockOutside fluid loss resulting from the vascular bed and the condition That Could Be Effectively Treated by fluid replacement. Assisted by Thomas, He Was Able to Provide incontrovertible proof of this theory, and in so doing, I've Gained wide Recognition in the medical community by the mid 1930s. Saami At this time, Blalock and Thomas Began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery, medical defying taboos Operating Against upon the heart. It Was That this work laid the foundation for the Revolutionary lifesaving They Were to Perform surgery at Johns Hopkins A Decade later.
Working at Johns Hopkins
By 1940, the work Blalock Thomas Place Had done with him at the Forefront of American surgery, and When He Was Offered the position of Chief of Surgery at His alma mater, Johns Hopkins in 1941, Thomas I Requested That Accompany him. Thomas Arrived in Baltimore with His wife, Clara, and Their young child in June of That Year, Confronting A Severe Shortage housing and a level of racism Worse Than They Had hardened in Nashville. Hopkins, like the rest of the city of Baltimore, WAS rigidly segregated, and the only black Employees Were janitors at the institution. When Thomas walk the halls in His white lab coat, heads turns.
Blue baby syndrome
In 1943, while shock Pursuing historical research, by renowned Blalock WAS Approaches: a Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Helen Taussig, Who Was seeking a surgical solution to a complex four-part and fatal heart Tetralogy of Fallot anomaly Called (theKnown so as blue baby syndrome, although cardiac anomalies Other causes blueness, or cyanosis). In infants born with this defect, blood is shunted past the lungs, oxygen deprivation and Malthus Creating a blue pallor. Such Having Many Patients Treated in her work in Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home, Taussig WAS desperate to find a surgical cure. According To the account provided by Thomas In His 1985 autobiography and in a 1967 interview with medical historian Peter Olch, Taussig Suggested That It Might Be only possible to "reconnect the pipes" in some way to Increase the level of blood flow to the lungs But made no suggestion whatsoever about how this Could Be Accomplished. Blalock and Thomas made Immediately That the answer lay in a procedure They Had Perfect for an Entirely Different purpose in Vanderbilt Their work, INVOLVING THE anastomosis, or joining method, of the subclavian to the pulmonary artery, Which Had the effect of Increasing blood flow to the lungs.
Thomas WAS charged with the task of first Creating a blue baby-like condition (cyanosis) in a dog, Then correcting the condition by Means of the pulmonary-to-subclavian anastomosis. Among the dogs operated upon Whom Thomas WAS one named Anna, Who Became the first long-term canine survivor of the operation and the only animal to Have her portrait hung on the walls of Johns Hopkins. In Nearly two years of laboratory work, INVOLVING Some 200 dogs, Thomas WAS ultimately Able to replicate in the canine model only two of the four cardiac anomalies in Tetralogy of Fallot Involved. I did Demonstrate That the coy itself, at Blalock's request, Thomas stood on a step stool at Blalock's shoulder and coached him step by step through the procedure, Thomas having performed the operation hundreds of times on a dog, Blalock only once, as Thomas' assistant. The surgery was not completely successful, though it did prolong the infant's life for several more months. Blalock and his team operated again on an 11-year-old girl, this time with complete success, and the patient was able to leave the hospital three weeks after the surgery. Next, they operated upon a six-year-old boy, who dramatically regained his color at the end of the surgery. The three cases formed the basis for the article which was published in the May 1945 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, giving credit to Blalock andTaussig for the procedure. Received no mention Thomas.
News of this groundbreaking story Circulate around the world via the Associated Press. Newsreels touted the event, Greatly Enhancing the status of Johns Hopkins and solidifying the reputation of Blalock, Who Had Been Regarded as a maverick by up Until That point in the Hopkins Some old guard. Thomas's contribution Remained unacknowledged, Both by Blalock and by Hopkins. Within a year, the operation Known as the Blalock-Taussig shunt Had Been Performed on More Than 200 Patients at Hopkins, Bringing Their Parents with Children Suffering from Thousands of miles away.
Thomas' surgical Developed Techniques have included one in 1946 for Improving circulation in Patients Whose great vessels (the aorta and the, Johns Hopkins University presented Thomas with an honorary doctorate. However, Because of Certain Restrictions, I Received an Honorary Doctor of Laws, Rather Than a medical doctorate. Thomas WAS Also Appointed to the faculty of Johns Hopkins Medical School as Instructor of Surgery. Legacy
historical Following retirement in 1979, Thomas Began work on an autobiography, Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock.
He Died on November 26, 1985 of pancreatic cancer, at age 75, and the WAS book published just days later. Having Learned of Thomas on the day of His death, Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe His Story Brought Attention to public for the first time in a 1989 article Entitled "Something Like the the Vivien Thomas Scholarship for Medical Science and Research sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. In Fall 2004, the Baltimore City Public School System opened the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy, and on January 29, 2008, MedStar Health unveiled the first \ovie, portray by Mos Def.
0 comments:
Post a Comment