Portrait of Vivien T. Thomas
by Bob Gee, Oil on Canvas, 1969
Vivien T. Thomas was a key player in pioneering the anastomosis
of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery.The surgical work
he performed with Alfred Blalock paved the way for the successful
outcome of the Blalock-Taussig shunt.
In January 1930, Vivien Thomas, a young African-American
who was forced for lack of funds to leave his first year of college,
came to work for Blalock in his laboratory. At that point Blalock's
increasing obligations were cutting into the time he could spend
in the laboratory and he needed a surgical assistant. A more fortunate
choice could not have been made. Vivien Thomas learned to perform
the surgical operations and chemical determinations needed for their
experiments, to calculate the results, and to keep precise records;
he remained an invaluable associate throughout Blalock's career.
Blalock and Thomas worked closely in the surgical
laboratories. Thomas was a major contributor in the development
of operative techniques. He and Blalock also collaborated on
the design of surgical equipment. Shown here is a clamp for the
temporary occlusion of the pulmonary artery, which was devised for
Blalock's use by Vivien Thomas and William Longmire, working with
the local surgical supply house Murray Baumgartner & Co.
Photograph by Marjorie Winslow Kehoe, 1996
Thomas supervised the surgical laboratories at Hopkins
for over 35 years, and in 1976 he was appointed instructor in surgery
at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1979, upon
his retirement, he became instructor emeritus of surgery. Vivien
Thomas's achievements were widely recognized by his colleagues.
In 1976, he was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Laws, by the
Johns Hopkins University.
Helen Taussig, and Steven Muller, President of
The Johns Hopkins University at graduation
in 1976, during which Thomas