Dr. Helen Taussig was convinced that the operation would help the patient,
and despite the technical problems of operating on a very small and very ill child,
Dr. Alfred Blalock's skill was equal to the task. Blalock worked with his surgical team
and his invaluable assistant Vivien T. Thomas, who stood behind Blalock and offered a
number of helpful suggestions in regard to the technique employed.
The tiny child who had been at such great risk survived the operation and slowly impoved.
Over the succeeding days she gradually became less blue.
By the end of the second postoperative week it was clear she would recover.
(View a copy of Dr. Blalock's surgical record page one, page two)
The child's mother later recalled,
When I saw Eileen for the first time, it was like a miracle...
I was beside myself with happiness.
Dr. Blalock and his surgical team, performing one of the first shunts.
By the third time the procedure was performed,
the success of the operation had become dramatically apparent.
Dr. Taussig described the third patient to receive the landmark operation
"as an utterly miserable, small six-year old boy who was no longer able
to walk." His skin was intensely blue, his lips deep purple.
Just after the final stitches were tied and the clamps released, the anesthesiologist
called out, "The boy's a lovely color now!" Dr. Taussig remembered the thrill
of walking around to the head of the operating table to see those "lovely normal pink lips."
She reported that after his recovery from the operation he was a happy, active child.
In 1945, the first scientific paper describing the original three operations appeared in the
Journal of the American Medical Association and had immediate worldwide impact.
The Journal of the American Medical Association (128:189, May 19, 1945)
Copyright 1945 American Medical Association.
In the years that followed thousands of cyanotic children were helped by the operation.
Doctors from all over the world traveled to The Johns Hopkins
Hospital to learn from Dr. Taussig how to make the diagnosis and from
Dr. Blalock how to perform the anastomosis.
The blue-baby operation brought fame to both Alfred Blalock and Helen Taussig.
Pediatric Cardiologist - Helen B. Taussig
Surgical Technician - Vivien T. Thomas
...
