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On November 29,
1944, a small, frail child was wheeled into an operating room
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital for the first attempt to treat tetralogy
of Fallot, a congenital heart malformation that robs the blood
of oxygen. This life-threatening condition is often signaled by
a bluish or "cyanotic" cast to the skin, hence the term,
blue baby. The procedure joined an artery leaving the heart
to an artery leading to the lungs, in an attempt to give the blood
a second chance at oxygenation. It was the first blue baby operation
and came to be known as the Blalock-Taussig Shunt.
The OperationThe Pediatric
Cardiologist The Surgical
Technician
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