Traces the lives and world-changing achievements of doctors Vivien Thomas, Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig in developing the surgical technique for repairing congenital heart defects in babies and paving the way for open-heart surgery. By the Newbery Honor-winning author of An American Plague. 15,000 first printing.
In 1944 a groundbreaking operation repaired the congenital heart defect known as blue baby syndrome. The operation's success brought the surgeon Alfred Blalock international fame and paved the way for open-heart surgery. But the technique had been painstakingly developed by Vivien Thomas, Blalock's African American lab assistant, who stood behind Blalock in the operating room to give him step-by-step instructions.
The stories of this medical and social breakthrough and the lives of Thomas, Blalock, and their colleague Dr. Helen Taussig are intertwined in this compelling nonfiction narrative.
In 1944 an unprecedented surgical procedure repaired the heart of a child with blue baby syndromelack of blood oxygen caused by a congenital defect. This landmark operation opened the way for all types of open heart surgery. The team that developed it included a cardiologist and a surgeon, but most of the actual work was done by Vivien Thomas, an African American lab assistant who was frequently mistaken for a janitor.
