My aunts and uncles supplied the blood. Taussig, the pediatrician, had worked closely with Blalock, the surgeon, when he came to Hopkins in … This surgery was deemed a success, thanks to implantation of the new shunt, which increased blood flow, allowing enough of it … Based on the National Magazine Award-winning Washingtonian magazine article … In fact, he had devised a "blue baby syndrome" in dogs. He returned to Hopkins as chief of surgery in 1941, bringing Thomas with him. Known as the ”Blue Baby operation,” the procedure was first performed on a tiny, 18-month-old girl suffering from tetralogy of Fallot (blue baby syndrome), a combination of heart defects that kept her blood so starved for oxygen that she appeared blue. I was born a blue baby in 1947 with congenital heart disease. She could only take a few steps before beginning to breathe heavily. The approach to telling the true story of the blue baby syndrome surgery sheds light on an issue that was most likely not rare for the time period. As performing surgery in newborns can be risky, the doctor may suggest any other treatment alternative. The book initiates questioning of what other medical procedures were contributed to by someone of lower social status based on his/her race or gender. Sometimes, the doctor may advise no immediate treatment too. That’s tetralogy of Fallot, the congenital heart defect that causes Blue Baby Syndrome. In 1944 a small, frail child was wheeled into the operating room at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Something the Lord Made is a 2004 American made-for-television biographical drama film about the black cardiac pioneer Vivien Thomas (1910–1985) and his complex and volatile partnership with white surgeon Alfred Blalock (1899–1964), the "Blue Baby doctor" who pioneered modern heart surgery. The Blue Baby Operation A new era in heart surgery began at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1944, when Alfred Blalock, Vivien Thomas, and Helen Taussig debuted a daring procedure that would eventually save thousands of deathly-ill children. The blue baby syndrome had made her lips and fingers turn blue, with the rest of her skin having a very faint blue tinge. Their procedure corrected tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital malformation of the heart also known as “Blue Baby syndrome” because it deprived babies born with the condition of sufficient oxygen. [30] They say that Cooley does them faster than anyone, that he can make a tetralogy operation look so simple it doesn’t even look like surgery. The blue baby syndrome is a rare disorder and can be caused due to many causes. A baby with the blue baby syndrome can lead a normal life after successful treatment. Until the day of that milestone blue baby operation, most infants and children with the heart defect died. they caught my problem at 6 months - I had open heart surgery at Childrens Hosp in Los Angeles in 1952 for a Patent Ductus Aterosis. As the doctors prepared for surgery, the team in the operating room looked at the cyanotic (blue) 15-month-old girl, who hovered close to … The MD est told my parents to not let me be active - however the more active I was the better I felt. The Treatment of Blue Baby Syndrome Overview. He says he’s on his way to do a “tet case” right now. Because no instruments for cardiac surgery then existed, Thomas adapted the needles and clamps for the procedure from those in use in the animal lab. A loudspeaker summons Cooley to surgery. 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