Blue Baby Heart Surgery

Through a collaboration between pediatric cardiologist helen taussig surgeon alfred blalock and surgical technician vivien thomas the blalock thomas taussig shunt was created.

Blue baby heart surgery.

The blue baby operation. In defiance of custom and jim crow blalock brings thomas into the surgery to advise him but when life magazine and kudos come thomas is excluded. After trials on dogs their first patient is baby eileen sure to die without the surgery. While the operation was a success and the little.

This operation ushered in the modern era of cardiac surgery. Eileen saxon sometimes referred to as the blue baby was the patient in an operation that ushered in the modern era of cardiac surgery. Blue baby working at hopkins had heart surgery 62 years ago nurse practitioner earned degree at hopkins as well pediatric nurse mary joyner in 2011 at johns hopkins hospital. She had a condition called tetralogy of fallot one of the primary congenital defects that lead to blue baby syndrome.

A new era in heart surgery began at the johns hopkins hospital in 1944 when alfred blalock vivien thomas and helen taussig debuted a daring procedure that would eventually save thousands of deathly ill children. Something the lord made is a 2004 american made for television biographical drama film about the black cardiac pioneer vivien thomas 1910 1985 and his complex and volatile partnership with white surgeon alfred blalock 1899 1964 the blue baby doctor who pioneered modern heart surgery. In 1943 while pursuing his shock research blalock was approached by pediatric cardiologist helen taussig who was seeking a surgical solution to a complex and fatal four part heart anomaly called tetralogy of fallot also known as blue baby syndrome although other cardiac anomalies produce blueness or cyanosis. He created with assistance from his research and laboratory assistant vivien thomas and pediatric cardiologist helen taussig the blalock thomas taussig shunt a surgical procedure to relieve the cyanosis from tetralogy of fallot.

If the condition is produced by a congenital heart defect your baby will most likely need surgery at some point. He worked at both vanderbilt. Alfred blalock was an american surgeon most noted for his work on the medical condition of shock as well as tetralogy of fallot commonly known as blue baby syndrome. In 1941 blalock and thomas take on the challenge of blue babies and invent bypass surgery.

Treatment depends on the cause of the blue baby syndrome. Discover how their groundbreaking collaborative work transformed patients lives and expanded the horizons of medicine in this online exhibit from the alan mason chesney medical archives.