Johns Hopkins Hospital, Vanderbilt University Hospital
Research
Blue baby syndrome, Atrial septostomy
Dr. Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910[1] – November 26, 1985)[2] was an American laboratory supervisor who in the 1940s developed a procedure used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease).[3] He was the assistant to surgeon Alfred Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas was unique in that he did not have any professional education or experience in a research laboratory; however, he served as supervisor of the surgical laboratories at Johns Hopkins for 35 years. In 1976, Johns Hopkins awarded him an honorary doctorate and named him an Instructor of Surgery for the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.[3] 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.
A PBS documentary, Partners of the Heart,[4] was broadcast in 2003 on PBS's American Experience. In the 2004 HBO movie Something the Lord Made, based on Katie McCabe's National Magazine Award–winning Washingtonian article of the same title, Vivien Thomas was portrayed by Mos Def.
^Soylu, Erdinc; Athanasiou, Thanos; Jarral, Omar A (May 2017). "Vivien Theodore Thomas (1910–1985): An African-American laboratory technician who went on to become an innovator in cardiac surgery". Journal of Medical Biography. 25 (2): 106–113. doi:10.1177/0967772015601566. PMID 26307408. S2CID 31036235.
^Johnson, George D. (2011). Profiles in Hue. Light of the Savior Ministries. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-4568-5119-4. Retrieved February 14, 2012.
^ ab"Vivien T. Thomas, L.L.D." Medical archives. Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Retrieved March 18, 2014.
^"Almost a Miracle". Hopkinsmedicine.org. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved March 8, 2012.
Dr. Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985) was an American laboratory supervisor who in the 1940s developed a procedure used to treat...
his research and laboratory assistant VivienThomas and pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt, a surgical procedure to...
made-for-television biographical drama film about the black cardiac pioneer VivienThomas (1910–1985) and his complex and volatile partnership with white surgeon...
Vivien Leigh (/liː/ LEE; born Vivian Mary Hartley; 5 November 1913 – 8 July 1967), styled as Lady Olivier after 1947, was a British actress. She won the...
a Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt) suggested by pediatric cardiologist Helen B. Taussig and administered by Alfred Blalock, with VivienThomas, who had perfected...
Williams Cushing and Walter Dandy, cardiac surgery by Alfred Blalock and VivienThomas, and child psychiatry by Leo Kanner. Johns Hopkins Children's Center...
medical school. African-American instructor and laboratory supervisor VivienThomas was instrumental in developing and conducting the first successful blue...
portrayal of Detective Sgt. Lucas in The Woodsman. For his portrayal of VivienThomas in HBO's film Something the Lord Made, he was nominated for an Emmy...
Taussig, surgeon Alfred Blalock, and surgical technician VivienThomas, the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt was created. Dr. Taussig had recognized that...
events and sports, as well as art battles and dance-offs. Thomas College was named for VivienThomas, the surgical technician who was the driving force behind...
conducted by surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen B. Taussig, with VivienThomas also providing substantial contributions and listed as an assistant...
septostomy (then less precisely called a septectomy) was developed by VivienThomas in a canine model and performed in humans by Alfred Blalock. The Rashkind...
heart surgeon and civil rights activist. On February 4, 1980, he and VivienThomas were the first to successfully implant an automatic defibrillator in...
unjustified, and he could not continue. Alfred Blalock, Helen Taussig, and VivienThomas performed the first successful palliative pediatric cardiac operation...
Thomas Blanchard Stowell Wilma Subra Sunil Kumar Ahuja Pearl Swanson Randy Sweeney Thomas W. Swetnam Doris Taylor Bonnie C. Templeton VivienThomas Benjamin...
1980 at Johns Hopkins Hospital by Dr. Levi Watkins Jr. assisted by VivienThomas. Modern ICDs do not require a thoracotomy and possess pacing, cardioversion...
Villegas Castrejón, Mexican surgeon and pioneer in electron microscopy VivienThomas, developer with Alfred Blalock and Helen B. Taussig of the first congenital...
Cotton", presented by Destination Freedom Biography portal The Knick VivienThomas Although a half dozen biographical dictionaries place Daniel Hale Williams's...
William Longmire, Denton Cooley, and Blalock's experienced technician, VivienThomas in 1944 at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Techniques for repair of congenital...
oxygen to their tissues, hypoxemia. She worked with Alfred Blalock and VivienThomas at the Johns Hopkins Hospital where they experimented with dogs to look...
Himself HBO James Brolin Ronald Reagan The Reagans Showtime Mos Def VivienThomas Something the Lord Made HBO Alan Rickman Dr. Alfred Blalock 2005 (57th)...
assistant VivienThomas conducted pioneering research leading to the first cardiothoracic surgery for infants born with "blue baby syndrome". Thomas and Blalock's...
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