Two Black Pioneers Who Changed Heart Surgery

[00:00:03] Today, surgeons can repair heart valves, bypass blocked arteries and correct complex heart defects. But there was a time when operating anywhere near the human heart was considered extraordinarily dangerous. Two black medical pioneers working more than half a century apart helped change that thinking. Their names were Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Vivian Thomas. I'm Rodney Washington. Welcome to the STM Daily News podcast and another edition of Forgotten Genius Friday, where we explore the people whose ideas, discoveries and determination helped shape the world around us. Let's travel back to Chicago. In 1893, a man named James Cornish had suffered a serious stab wound to his chest. This was medicine before antibiotics, modern blood transfusions, intensive care units and the heart lung machine. Cornish's surgeon was Dr. Daniel Hale Williams. Williams was already a groundbreaking figure. In 1891, he had founded Provident Hospital, an institution that created opportunities for black doctors and nurses at a time when racial segregation kept them out of many American hospitals. Faced with Cornish's life threatening injury, Williams decided to operate. He opened the patient's chest and repaired damage involving the pericardium, the protective sac surrounding the heart. Cornish survived. The operation became a landmark in the early history of cardiac surgery. You may have heard Williams described as the surgeon who performed the world's first first successful open heart operation. That's a common description, but modern terminology makes the history more complicated. Williams did not open the chambers of the heart in the way associated with what we typically call open heart surgery today. A more historically precise description is that Williams performed one of the landmark early operations in cardiac surgery. And considering the medical limitations surgeons faced in 1893, and it was still a remarkable achievement. [00:02:00] Now move forward more than 50 years, another Black man was about to help redefine what surgeons could accomplish. His name was Vivian Thomas. [00:02:11] Thomas had hoped to attend medical school, but financial circumstances during the Great Depression prevented him from following that path. Instead, he went to work as a laboratory assistant for surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock. Thomas eventually became far more than an assistant. He developed extraordinary skill as a surgical researcher and technician at Johns Hopkins. Thomas joined Blalock and pediatric cardiologist Dr. Helen Taussig in tackling a devastating problem. Children born with tetralogy of phallot a serious congenital heart condition, could suffer from dangerously low oxygen levels. The condition was historically associated with the term blue baby syndrome. The team believed surgery might help, but Thomas played a crucial role in developing and perfecting a technique designed to increase blood flow to the lungs. Then, on November 29, 1944, the idea moved from experimental research to an actual patient. The patient was 18 month old. Eileen Saxon Blaylock performed the groundbreaking operation at Johns Hopkins. Thomas was there too. He stood behind Blaylock in the operating room, helping guide him through a procedure Thomas understood intimately from his experimental work. The operation became an important milestone in cardiac surgery and helped open the way for increasingly sophisticated operations involving the heart and cardiovascular system. But there was another chapter to Thomas's story. For years, the public recognition he received didn't match the importance of his contribution. The procedure became widely known as the Blalock Taussig Shunt. Thomas name was absent. Recognition came much later. Today, Johns Hopkins includes his name and in the Blalock Taussig Thomas Pediatric and Congenital Heart center, acknowledging the role he played in this medical breakthrough. Daniel Hale Williams and Vivian Thomas never worked together. They belonged to different generations and followed very different paths through medicine. Williams became a physician, surgeon and hospital founder. Thomas never had the opportunity to attend medical school. Yet both men helped expand the boundaries of of cardiac surgery. Williams demonstrated what could be accomplished surgically around the heart. In the late 19th century, Thomas helped develop a procedure showing that surgeons could intentionally alter cardiovascular circulation to help save a child's life. Together, their stories are part of the long journey that led to modern cardiac surgery. More than a century after Williams operation and more than 80 years after Thomas helped develop the Blue Baby procedure, their contributions remain worth remembering. I'm Rodney Washington and this has been forgotten Genius Friday on the STM Daily News podcast. You can read the full story at STM Daily News and follow us for more stories about the innovators and pioneers whose contributions helped shape the world we know today.