Breakthrough!: How Three People Saved "Blue Babies" and Changed Medicine Forever

Gr 4–7—Murphy tells the fascinating story of a partnership between three extraordinary individuals, which led to a groundbreaking heart surgery. Prior to 1944, 25 percent of babies born with Tetralogy of Fallot, a serious heart defect, died before they reached their first year; only 30 percent lived to the age of 10. Dr. Helen B. Taussig, a pediatric cardiologist who worked at Johns Hopkins, approached renowned Hopkins surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock about the possibility of performing cardiac surgery on these infants, known as "blue babies." Dr. Blalock enlisted the help of his assistant, Vivien Thomas, whose skill and expertise were instrumental in not only developing the procedure but in designing the special surgical instruments required. Thomas, who knew more about the procedure than anyone in the world, was a black man without a college degree, whom many thought was the janitor. Thomas was so indispensable to Blalock that during the surgery he stood on a stool behind Blalock offering advice and guidance. The account of these three individuals is expertly woven together, but it is Thomas's compelling story that receives the sharper focus. The accessible text is peppered with historical photographs, and Murphy combines just the right amount of medical information necessary to understand the science, as well as the human interest aspect. Also tactfully introduced is the reality that many medical advances have been made due to experimentation on animals—in this case it was dogs.