Vivien Thomas

Vivien Thomas

Vivien Thomas is a hero because he was the first black person to develop a procedure for saving blue babies even though he didn’t get to perform the operation himself. "Blue baby" is a deformation that causes blood to be blocked from going to the artery which makes the baby turn blue and eventually die.

Vivien first discovered the procedure for curing blue baby by performing it on a dog. The doctor he was working with was amazed and wanted to know what procedure he used. Vivien Thomas was amazed because, at the time he was doing the procedure, he and the doctor he was working for got into a big disagreement, but eventually they worked it out.

Blalock and Thomas

A hero to me is somebody that changes the world forever, like for instance somebody finding a cure for AIDS. Somebody that uses his time for something good and for another person's well-being.

I picked this person because people didn’t really know about him. What he did should have been written down in record books forever. He was a person that never went to college but still had knowledge about a person's health and well-being. He was a doctor's assistant, making barely enough money to feed his family. But he didn’t care because he knew deep inside of himself that something was waiting for him, something spectacular.

Vivien Thomas wasn’t treated fairly, but he didn’t let that stop him. He kept on pursuing his goal. He was presented with the degree of Honorary Doctor of Laws by the Johns Hopkins University in 1976. Sadly, he died in 1985. He left behind his wife and kids.

In 1995 a movie entitled, "Something the Lord Made," was made in remembrance of Vivien Thomas, starring Mos Def. The movie told the story of his life and his pioneering work in heart surgery.