The Fingers Of Vivian

I am by no means an expert in writing, nor do I own any degree of any sort in the arts of journalism, or story telling. But, I think I can do well to tell you about an inspirational figure I learned about during my time in Highschool.

It all began five years ago during my Junior year. I was sixteen at the time and was sitting in my Spanish learners classroom. To help us learn spanish better, My teacher, Mr. Rojas, decided to play a movie called Something the Lord Made (in Spanish).

The time period of the film took place in the 1930's-1940's. A horrible time of segregation and the beginning of the Great Depression, times then were truly difficult which makes the movie and the events of Something the Lord Made even more impactful.

The movie focuses on the life of an young African-American man in Tennessee searching for work during the harsh times of the Depression. Vivian Thomas, the inventor whom I am going to write about, is the focus of the film.

Vivien Thomas was son to a carpenter. He was born in Louisiana in 1910 and moved to Nashville in his adolescent years when Jim Crow segregated blacks and whites. Yet he did not let the era’s institutional racism deter him from his dream of attending college to pursue a better life of passion and education.

Alfred Blalock, a surgeon who worked and studied in Vanderbilt was looking for a new lab assistant. Vivian was looking for work the same time, after his life savings were wiped out due to the depression and was hired by Alfred Blalock as a laboratory assistant under the title of "Janitor". He recorded data, conducted experimentation and even was even an inventor as he made his own forms of equipment to perfect what was called, Blue Baby syndrome-a congenital heart defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot. It results in insufficient oxygenation of the blood.

In the lab, the two men Alfred and Thomas were synced together and no form of racism occurred between the two of them. They both openly discussed what they thought or felt. Together, both men made great astounding feats, mostly within the hands of Thomas. Vivian was equal with Alfred, unfortunately that did not last forever when faced with the public eye as sadly, Vivian Thomas would not be credited with his great research/dedication, rather Blalock was unwilling to place the credit where most of it was due.

Nearly two years of laboratory work by Vivien involving some 200 dogs, demonstrated that the corrective procedure for Tetralogy of Fallot was not lethal, thus persuading Blalock that the operation could be safely attempted on a human patient. (medschool.vanderbilt.edu, Vivien T. Thomas, LL.D.)

In 1944 Thomas stood behind Blalock coaching him through the procedure. during the first ever "blue baby" operation on a 15-month-old baby named Eileen Saxon, Blalock brought along Thomas for the reason that Thomas was the one that had perfected, and numerously experimented with great precaution upon the dogs in the laboratory the two men resided in for most of their days. Vivien knew the procedure like the back of his hand. With agile hands, Vivien experimented with the oxygen levels, maneuvering his way with shunts, and wrote every detail down to the last bit. He was the doctor of the lab, and without a medical degree, performed surgery with Blalock on Eileen.

Even Dr. Denton Cooley attests to Thomas' greatness and to his creation of the blue baby procedure. “You see,” explains Cooley, “it was Vivien who had worked it all out in the lab, in the canine heart, long before Dr. Blalock did Eileen, the first Blue Baby. There were no ‘cardiac experts’ then. That was the beginning.”

The surgery was a great event to be celebrated in Cardiac medical history. It was a pioneer and made the way for other doctors today to create innovations and excel. It was thanks to Vivien Thomas, African-American Instructor of Cardiac Surgery.

Another one of his most notable achievements included a complex operation called atrial septectomy, the procedure was carried out with flawless ease by Thomas that Blalock, when peering at the nearly undetectable suture line, remarked in awe “Vivien, this looks like something the Lord made.”

The finger's of Vivien Thomas were inspirational, he did not allow the trials of life to crush him, nor did he give up in the face of adversity. He did not let segregation kill his passions, and he rose above it all. His hands were sparks of light that would encourage generations down the road.

Today, his work lives on in the hearts of Surgeons. His passion and efforts live on in the many patients saved today. I may have been young, only sixteen at the time I watched the movie but it had me in tears. How beautiful it is when one can rise above hatred, the great things we can accomplish if we don't stop and keep running forward. Something the Lord Made will always resonate with me. Let's give credit where it is do, because if anyone should be remembered and praised, for their strength, charm, intelligence and inspiring life, it should be African-American Cardiac professor, Vivien Thomas. The man who cured Blue Baby syndrome, and paved the road for many African-American's to become doctors.