Changing The World
School Truth & Transformation / Movie: Something the Lord Made
Circumstances seem an accident, but actually, they may push us to our main purpose in life. Vivien Thomas, an Afro American citizen, lost all his savings to study medicine during the Great Depression. This forced him to find a job connected to his interest. He came to work as an as a surgical research technician for Dr. Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Blalock (American surgeon), a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, self-confident to the point of arrogance, was a great teacher and a mentor. He had a great eye for talent and could bring out the best of his students.
Vivien became indispensable as a research partner to Blalock in his first daring forays into heart surgery. His remarkable manual dexterity and scientific acumen shatter Blalock's expectations. Vivien Thomas was doing the work of a Postdoctoral researcher in the lab (the mid-1930s) he was classified and paid as a janitor.
Blalock was approached by the Department of Surgery at Hopkins School of Medicine for the position of its chairman. He happily accepted the offer on the precondition that Vivien should also accompany him, a request that was instantly granted. Hopkins was an institution where the only black employees are janitors and where Thomas must enter by the back door.
In 1941, Blalock and Vivien joined Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
They started working on blue baby syndrome (Tetralogy of Fallot) with Helen Taussig (cardiologist), developing a surgical method to cure it defying medical taboos against operating upon the heart. Together, they boldly attack the devastating heart problem opening the field of heart surgery.
After working with 200 dogs for two years, a corrective procedure, later known as ‘Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt’, was developed, resulting in the operation on fifteen months old Eileen. It was this work that laid the foundation for the revolutionary lifesaving surgery they were to perform at Johns Hopkins a decade later. Vivien earned Blalock's unalloyed respect, with Blalock praising the results of Vivien´s surgical skill as being "like something the Lord made", and insisting that Vivien coach him through the all the heart surgeries over the protests of Hopkins administrators.
By 1950s, they had performed over 1,000 surgeries to correct congenital heart defects. The referral and operation not only saved miles of lives directly but also ushered in the modern era of cardiac surgery, which was the first time that surgery succeeded in the human heart of modern medicine. Since 2004, American doctors have performed more than one million seven hundred and fifty thousand heart surgeries each year.
After watching this movie, what speaks to me strongly is the importance of committing ourselves to our calling, regardless of the cost. Surely we would not have heart surgeries if Blalock had been insecure or had been afraid of failing. He was willing to pay the price to the possibility of creating a duct from humans to carry blood to the lungs. He was stubborn and focused on the challenges he had as a surgeon. He did not hide his need for Vivien to achieve his purposes. He knew that alone he was n´t going to make it. In 1944 cardiac surgery was rarely performed on humans, especially not on infants, and the instrumentation was considered primitive. Blalock had a pioneering spirit, ahead of the times, a visionary. The humility of Vivien, in spite of all the injustices of the racism of the time. He chose to take responsibility for his gifts and talents instead of trying to shine or looking for self-justice. He recognized his need for Blalock as well. He became a truly a model of service of the time. Wise to stay at Hopkins for a higher purpose. And for the hope of the world, develop his calling to bless humanity.
The other factor that stood out to me and that makes this success of the heart surgery come true is the physician Hellen Taussig. She invited Blalock to operate little Eileen because of the lack of oxygenated blood that caused her a blue complexion. She was the head of the pediatric division at Hopkins. My research says: "She was a tender-hearted and treated every patient as her own child. She had been denied admittance to Harvard School of Public Health because she was a woman, enrolled in Boston University Medical School and was later accepted at Harvard Medical School as a "special student." She was to sit apart from male students when attending lectures and was required to study tissue slides in a private room. She would not be allowed to graduate regardless of her grades. Instead, she received her MD degree from Johns Hopkins in 1927."
My conclusion is that in the same amount, in different areas and realities, as much as for Blalock, Vivien, and Taussig, it was a challenge equally to achieve their objectives. Each one had to overcome their own obstacles to advance and have the victory.
Whoever wants to changes the world through a specific sphere to leave a mark for the next generation, should not, for a second attempt, do it alone. Also, pursue being the best integrally in our professions is not an option. And so, and all, we will have great trials and obstacles on the way.
My personal application is not to be discouraged by the tests I face at this moment, instead, to strengthen myself with them. Also, I want to know what part of the puzzle I play and exactly what will be my personal contribution I will give to the world. I know that my calling is to guide leaders to the identity and purpose in Christ to influence the spheres, and I´m looking forward to knowing where I will develop that. So exciting!
Circumstances seem an accident, but actually, they may push us to our main purpose in life. Vivien Thomas, an Afro American citizen, lost all his savings to study medicine during the Great Depression. This forced him to find a job connected to his interest. He came to work as an as a surgical research technician for Dr. Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Blalock (American surgeon), a highly original scientific thinker and something of an iconoclast, self-confident to the point of arrogance, was a great teacher and a mentor. He had a great eye for talent and could bring out the best of his students.
Vivien became indispensable as a research partner to Blalock in his first daring forays into heart surgery. His remarkable manual dexterity and scientific acumen shatter Blalock's expectations. Vivien Thomas was doing the work of a Postdoctoral researcher in the lab (the mid-1930s) he was classified and paid as a janitor.
Blalock was approached by the Department of Surgery at Hopkins School of Medicine for the position of its chairman. He happily accepted the offer on the precondition that Vivien should also accompany him, a request that was instantly granted. Hopkins was an institution where the only black employees are janitors and where Thomas must enter by the back door.
In 1941, Blalock and Vivien joined Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
They started working on blue baby syndrome (Tetralogy of Fallot) with Helen Taussig (cardiologist), developing a surgical method to cure it defying medical taboos against operating upon the heart. Together, they boldly attack the devastating heart problem opening the field of heart surgery.
After working with 200 dogs for two years, a corrective procedure, later known as ‘Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt’, was developed, resulting in the operation on fifteen months old Eileen. It was this work that laid the foundation for the revolutionary lifesaving surgery they were to perform at Johns Hopkins a decade later. Vivien earned Blalock's unalloyed respect, with Blalock praising the results of Vivien´s surgical skill as being "like something the Lord made", and insisting that Vivien coach him through the all the heart surgeries over the protests of Hopkins administrators.
By 1950s, they had performed over 1,000 surgeries to correct congenital heart defects. The referral and operation not only saved miles of lives directly but also ushered in the modern era of cardiac surgery, which was the first time that surgery succeeded in the human heart of modern medicine. Since 2004, American doctors have performed more than one million seven hundred and fifty thousand heart surgeries each year.
After watching this movie, what speaks to me strongly is the importance of committing ourselves to our calling, regardless of the cost. Surely we would not have heart surgeries if Blalock had been insecure or had been afraid of failing. He was willing to pay the price to the possibility of creating a duct from humans to carry blood to the lungs. He was stubborn and focused on the challenges he had as a surgeon. He did not hide his need for Vivien to achieve his purposes. He knew that alone he was n´t going to make it. In 1944 cardiac surgery was rarely performed on humans, especially not on infants, and the instrumentation was considered primitive. Blalock had a pioneering spirit, ahead of the times, a visionary. The humility of Vivien, in spite of all the injustices of the racism of the time. He chose to take responsibility for his gifts and talents instead of trying to shine or looking for self-justice. He recognized his need for Blalock as well. He became a truly a model of service of the time. Wise to stay at Hopkins for a higher purpose. And for the hope of the world, develop his calling to bless humanity.
The other factor that stood out to me and that makes this success of the heart surgery come true is the physician Hellen Taussig. She invited Blalock to operate little Eileen because of the lack of oxygenated blood that caused her a blue complexion. She was the head of the pediatric division at Hopkins. My research says: "She was a tender-hearted and treated every patient as her own child. She had been denied admittance to Harvard School of Public Health because she was a woman, enrolled in Boston University Medical School and was later accepted at Harvard Medical School as a "special student." She was to sit apart from male students when attending lectures and was required to study tissue slides in a private room. She would not be allowed to graduate regardless of her grades. Instead, she received her MD degree from Johns Hopkins in 1927."
My conclusion is that in the same amount, in different areas and realities, as much as for Blalock, Vivien, and Taussig, it was a challenge equally to achieve their objectives. Each one had to overcome their own obstacles to advance and have the victory.
Whoever wants to changes the world through a specific sphere to leave a mark for the next generation, should not, for a second attempt, do it alone. Also, pursue being the best integrally in our professions is not an option. And so, and all, we will have great trials and obstacles on the way.
My personal application is not to be discouraged by the tests I face at this moment, instead, to strengthen myself with them. Also, I want to know what part of the puzzle I play and exactly what will be my personal contribution I will give to the world. I know that my calling is to guide leaders to the identity and purpose in Christ to influence the spheres, and I´m looking forward to knowing where I will develop that. So exciting!
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