Post by Test Card Girl on Sept 4, 2007 12:56:58 GMT 10
The son of a family friend was born a "blue baby." I remember him as a child as having purplish lips and skin. He was small and breathed through his mouth. He got tired easily. I knew he was born with a heart defect and had to have several operations. He became an IT consultant but did not marry or have a family. A few years ago at the age of 30 he passed away. During his last hospital admission he said to his Mum that he was tired of fighting anymore and the family and his doctors let him go. My mum went to the funeral and she was saying that people said such lovely things about his life and how he just got on with it and made the best of his oppurtunities. Without the operations he had as a young child, he probably would not have had this life.
This made for TV film is about the doctors who pioneered paediatric cardiac surgery for "blue babies" - specifically for babies born with Tetralogy of Fallot which is a deformity of the heart leading to de-oxygenated blood circulating around the body. It was produced by HBO which has a reputation of producing authentic and honest films based on true lives and events.
Vivien Thomas ( Mos Def) was a black carpenter who was prevented by the Great Depression from going to medical school. In 1930,he found a job as a janitor in surgeon Dr Alfred Blalock's (Alan Rickman) lab where Blalock was conducting research on traumatic shock on dogs. Blalock soon discovered Thomas' potential and tutored him in anatomy,pysiology and surgical techniques and Thomas was soon working as a very able surgical/lab technician.
When Blalock was appointed Head of Surgery at the prestigious John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1941 he insisted that Thomas was hired in his lab. A paediatric cardiologist Dr Helen Taussig brought to Blalock's attention the problem of blue babies and Blalock agreed to find a surgical solution for this condition. He and Thomas developed the technique in the lab for the Blalock-Taussig shunt which was first performed on a 15month old baby girl in 1944. This operation paved the way for open heart surgery.
As well as the medical story, we see Thomas' story against the background of racial prejudice in the 30s and 40s when a black man had to step off the path to let a white man pass. While Thomas was working in the lab at John Hopkins he was being paid the same wage as a janitor. While the white doctors involved in the first BT shunt featured in an article in Life magazine Thomas, who was present at the operation to guide Blalock, was overlooked. Even Blalock, at a dinner held in his honour neglected to mention Thomas' name when he thanked his team of surgeons.
The changing relationship between Thomas and Blalock is portrayed so wonderfully by Rickman and Def. We see Thomas grow as a pupil than as a technical equal then as a teacher. We see doctors gathering at the lab window to see the phenomenon of the Head of Surgery Blalock assisting Thomas as he operates on a dog in an experminent. At the end of the movie we see Thomas pushing Blalock in a wheelchair at the end of his life and Blalock saying "You do not know that you have lived unless you have had regrets. I regret...I have some regrets." He doesn't say what they were but Thomas knows and at that point in the film we know as well.
It is a very moving film and has inspired me to read more about these men. Vivien Thomas decame Director of Laboratories at John Hopkins and trained surgeons in open heart surgery techniques. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and his portrait hangs next to Blalock's in the foyer of John Hopkins along with the portraits of other eminent surgeons
This made for TV film is about the doctors who pioneered paediatric cardiac surgery for "blue babies" - specifically for babies born with Tetralogy of Fallot which is a deformity of the heart leading to de-oxygenated blood circulating around the body. It was produced by HBO which has a reputation of producing authentic and honest films based on true lives and events.
Vivien Thomas ( Mos Def) was a black carpenter who was prevented by the Great Depression from going to medical school. In 1930,he found a job as a janitor in surgeon Dr Alfred Blalock's (Alan Rickman) lab where Blalock was conducting research on traumatic shock on dogs. Blalock soon discovered Thomas' potential and tutored him in anatomy,pysiology and surgical techniques and Thomas was soon working as a very able surgical/lab technician.
When Blalock was appointed Head of Surgery at the prestigious John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore in 1941 he insisted that Thomas was hired in his lab. A paediatric cardiologist Dr Helen Taussig brought to Blalock's attention the problem of blue babies and Blalock agreed to find a surgical solution for this condition. He and Thomas developed the technique in the lab for the Blalock-Taussig shunt which was first performed on a 15month old baby girl in 1944. This operation paved the way for open heart surgery.
As well as the medical story, we see Thomas' story against the background of racial prejudice in the 30s and 40s when a black man had to step off the path to let a white man pass. While Thomas was working in the lab at John Hopkins he was being paid the same wage as a janitor. While the white doctors involved in the first BT shunt featured in an article in Life magazine Thomas, who was present at the operation to guide Blalock, was overlooked. Even Blalock, at a dinner held in his honour neglected to mention Thomas' name when he thanked his team of surgeons.
The changing relationship between Thomas and Blalock is portrayed so wonderfully by Rickman and Def. We see Thomas grow as a pupil than as a technical equal then as a teacher. We see doctors gathering at the lab window to see the phenomenon of the Head of Surgery Blalock assisting Thomas as he operates on a dog in an experminent. At the end of the movie we see Thomas pushing Blalock in a wheelchair at the end of his life and Blalock saying "You do not know that you have lived unless you have had regrets. I regret...I have some regrets." He doesn't say what they were but Thomas knows and at that point in the film we know as well.
It is a very moving film and has inspired me to read more about these men. Vivien Thomas decame Director of Laboratories at John Hopkins and trained surgeons in open heart surgery techniques. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate and his portrait hangs next to Blalock's in the foyer of John Hopkins along with the portraits of other eminent surgeons