Vivien Thomas

If you had to pick one person from your hometown who has done great things who would it be? The hometown hero I choose is Vivien Thomas. He was born in New Iberia, which is near New Orleans. The grandson of a slave, he attended Pearl High School in Nashville in the 1920's. He wanted to become a doctor, but the Great Depression derailed his plans. In February 1930, Thomas secured a job as a surgical research technician with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University. On his first day of work, Thomas assisted Blalock with a surgical experiment on a dog.  At the end of Thomas's first day, Blalock told Thomas they would do another experiment the next morning. Blalock told Thomas to "come in and put the animal to sleep and get it set up". Within a few weeks, Thomas was starting surgery on his own. Thomas was classified and paid as a janitor, despite the fact that by the mid-1930s, he was doing the work of a postdoctoral researcher in the lab.

The reason I chose Dr. Thomas because he came from nothing, and he became known worldwide. He became the first surgeon with no college diploma. In 1943, Thomas approached the Blue Baby Syndrome by creating a plasma machine. While pursuing his research, Blalock was approached by renowned pediatric cardiologist Dr. 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). In infants born with this defect, blood is shunted past the lungs, thus creating oxygen deprivation and a blue pallor. Having treated many patients in her work in Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home, Taussig was desperate to find a surgical cure.

  Dr. Thomas was one of the greatest to do it and he didn't even have a college diploma at first. The bank crash of 1930 wiped out the young man's entire savings, destroying his dreams of going to college. I know he made a lot of the little he had. He makes me want to do better. I know that I can also do great things just because of the example that Vivien Thomson made.

  He was the true definition of a hometown hero. He set a good example and let everybody know that he wanted to accomplish more. All the people he saved and all of the babies he cured should know that he was and still is a great man. Anyone can be a hero but this man was living proof that anything could be done with the right mind set. It's not about money, fame, or recognition. It's all about the way you use those things to better yourself. Now that you have read about this man and his lifetime achievements you should also realize what a remarkable man he was. Let this man inspire you to do great things and help you realize that anything is possible.