After looking at many profiles, I picked Vivien Thomas to do as my Unsung Hero. I chose to focus on him because I am interested in medicine and children’s health. His story is inspiring because even though he wasn’t able to pursue his dream of being a doctor, he still worked, researched and became an amazing champion for children’s health by pioneering a surgery that would save babies with major cardiac problems. Despite racial prejudice and poor treatment by many, Vivien didn’t let anything deter him from helping. 

Vivien Thomas embodies the traits of compassion, perseverance, creativity, thoughtfulness in his vision, and lastly wisdom. He was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1910. Even as a kid, Vivien knew he wanted to be a doctor, but because his family was Black and poor he knew it would be an almost impossible dream for him. Vivien worked as a carpenter but when the Great Depression hit, his work was no longer needed. He was out of work and college was no longer in his future. 

His friend gave him a chance to work in a laboratory at Vanderbilt University with Dr. Alfred Blalock. His friend warned him that Dr. Blalock could be tough to work for. In his first week at the lab, Vivien helped with an experimental surgery on a dog. Within a few weeks, Dr. Blalock saw that Vivien was very talented and let him start canine surgeries on his own. Despite how talented Vivien was, he was officially on staff and paid as a janitor, even though the work he was doing was the same as someone who already had a doctorate in research. Dr. Blalock advocated for Vivien to get a raise, but he continued to struggle with money. The two men worked as a team on many cardiac and vascular surgeries, and when Johns Hopkins University offered Dr. Blalock a job, he said he would only take if Vivien came too. 

But life at Johns Hopkins was hard because the city was still very segregated and racist, there weren’t enough houses, and the rents were very high. A pediatric cardiologist, Helen Taussig, asked the men to help her create a surgery to save babies from a condition called “Tetralogy of Fallot” (AKA Blue baby syndrome) which made babies turn a shade of blue because of oxygen deprivation to the lungs. Vivien Thomas was given the job to create the condition in dogs and then try to solve it (don’t forget he wasn’t actually a doctor so he couldn’t work on humans!). After 200 surgeries he was able to cure it in a dog named Anna. Dr. Blalock was so impressed that he told Vivien, “this looks like something the Lord made.” Both he and Vivien were sure they could perform the same surgery like that in humans and that it would be safe. 

When Dr. Blalock set out to do the surgery on an 18 month old baby named Eileen Saxon, he asked Vivien to stand on a stepstool over his shoulder to coach him through it since Vivien had done so many and Dr. Blalock had only done one. After three surgeries, Dr. Blalock and Dr. Taussig were given credit for a medical article about the surgery but Vivien was not mentioned in the journal. Within a year of their first surgery, they performed on more than 200 patients from all across America. Vivien’s reputation as excellent and precise in surgeries was well known, but despite that he was still only called an assistant.

Vivien Thomas never went back to school, but he taught an entire generation of surgeons his techniques and was the director of Surgical Research Labs at Hopkins for more than 15 years. In 1976, he was given an honorary doctorate, so even though he was a “doctor” he was never allowed to operate on a living patient. Vivien was finally given a job on the faculty at the medical school where he went on to mentor many African American lab assistants and Johns Hopkins’ first black cardiac resident doctor. Vivien Thomas paved the way for generations of doctors, saving millions of babies and children, and inspiring many people of all races and colors to pursue their dreams. 

I chose the ombre blue background to represent the blue babies and the path from normal births to sick and then dying. The mother cradling her infant is moving, because I cannot imagine what these moms felt like knowing their babies could die and having to put all their trust and their faith in Vivien Thomas and Dr. Blalock. The stepstool is important because it is how Vivien directed and guided the surgeon through the surgeries. While painting this, I kept thinking that he is literally looking down from a step stool like an angel over the patient lying on the table. Although he had the skills and the knowledge to do the surgery, he couldn’t perform it but instead had to guide with his words from a distance. 

Vivien Thomas’ perseverance to do good in the world despite so many roadblocks and restrictions is inspiring. He had to fight racism, segregation and poverty at every step. Even when he was doing the work, he wasn’t given credit. Even when it was his brain and his hands that knew what to do, he wasn’t allowed to use them. At any point he could have given up or gotten angry at the unfairness of it all but he didn’t. I imagine his dream of being a doctor was to help people, but little did he know that he wouldn’t just help people–he would change the world of cardiology and his surgical techniques would still be used decades later.  

I would like to be as brave and persistent as Vivien Thomas. He was given a huge project, without any known solution, and instead of getting overwhelmed or frustrated he kept working, experimenting, and creating until he came up with a solution. He also didn’t let the unfairness of not receiving credit for his work make him mad. He didn’t make it about him and his reputation, he made it about the important work of saving the babies.