The Nun Who Cracked the Human Heart in Bronze
A deep dive into the life of Vivien Thomas, the Black lab technician who developed the surgical techniques to fix 'blue baby' syndrome and guided the first operation from a stool, despite being denied a medical degree.
Listen in the Fylom app.
Vivien Thomas was classified as an assistant janitor while performing high-level surgical research at Vanderbilt.
The nineteen twenty-nine bank crash wiped out Thomas's savings and derailed his medical school plans.
Thomas coached surgeon Alfred Blalock through the first blue baby surgery from a wooden stool.
The Journal of the American Medical Association omitted Thomas's name from the nineteen forty-five procedure report.
Institutional racism forced Thomas to enter the hospital through back doors despite his medical breakthroughs.
Johns Hopkins awarded Thomas an honorary doctorate in nineteen seventy-six, decades after his pioneering work.
- 01Intro1 min
- 02The Carpenter's Son and the Crash2 min
- 03The Lab as a Sanctuary and a Cage2 min
- 04The Stool Behind the Surgeon3 min
- 05The Long Road to the Portrait2 min
- 06Outro1 min
- 25-July-2024
- Vivien Thomas in the Lab - A Photographic Archive
- Introduction · The Blue Baby Operation · Exhibitsexhibits.library.jhu.edu › exhibits › show › the-blue-baby-operation
- The Blue Baby Operation
- [PDF] Mr. Vivien Thomas Discusses Dr. Alfred Blalock
- [PDF] Vivien Thomas and the Role of Dogs in Experimental Surgery
- Blue Baby Operation Exhibit
- Alfred Blalock Papers, 1899-1985
- Johns Hopkins Gazette | July 21, 2008
- Our History of Innovation in Cardiac Surgery - Johns Hopkins Medicine
- The birth of a new era: the introduction of the systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt for the treatment of cyanotic congenital heart disease - PubMed
- Alfred Blalock's shunt for Fallot's Tetralogy - PMC
- Cardiac procedure renamed to recognize critical role of Black ...
Fylom generates episodes like this on any topic you're curious about.
Fylom episodes are researched, written, and voiced by AI. Automated checks help catch inaccuracies, but episodes aren't reviewed by a human and AI can still get things wrong. Treat them as a starting point, not a source of record — more in our accuracy disclaimer.