Helen B. Taussig, M.D. and Professor of Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - Continuing Education |
| Discipline(s): |
Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering Engineering Diversity |
| Special Topic(s): |
Persons with Disabilities History of Technology |
| Learning Resource Type: | Reference - Article/Document |
| Media Type: | WWW |
| Author(s): | Johns Hopkins Medical Archives |
| Description: | Co-inventor of technology that laid the foundation for today's open heart surgery. She is also an example of someone who was able to achieve in spite of growing up with dyslexia in days where our medical understanding was limited. She also suffered from deafness througout the latter part of her career and learned to use lip-reading to listen to patients and felt the rhythm of heartbeats with her fingers instead of using a stethoscope. "In 1930, Helen B. Taussig was appointed by Dr. Edwards A. Park, professor of pediatrics, to head his cardiac clinic. Dr. Taussig soon began to study the cardiac manifestations of disease, and then her interest turned to congenital heart disease. Eventually she came to the realization that the major physiological problem in tetralogy of Fallot (the blue-baby syndrome) was lack of blood flow to the lung. Although opinions vary as to the origins of the operation, Dr. Taussig remembered listening to a conversation in 1943 between Dr. Alfred Blalock and Dr. Edwards A. Park. The discussion had to do with the difficulty associated with cross-clamping the descending aorta to repair a coarctation. Dr. Park inquired, Could you not use the carotid artery as a bypass? It is a long, straight artery and there are four vessels to the brain. Wouldn't it be possible to turn the carotid artery down and anastomose it to the aorta below the coarctation? Dr. Taussig spoke up, If you could put the carotid artery into the descending aorta, couldn't you put the subclavian artery into the pulmonary artery? Regardless of the variance in the stories recounting the origination of the procedure; it is clear Blalock together with Vivien Thomas, continued to move forward with the problem of providing oxygen to the pulmonary artery. The shunt first tried at Vanderbilt ultimately provided the answer. The operation was first performed on a very ill, high-risk patient in 1944. Although the frail child died months later in a second operation, the child survived long enough to demonstrate the survival of a surgical procedure that would save the lives of tens of thousands of children.In 1945, Helen Taussig and Alfred Blalock published a joint paper on the first three operations in the Journal of the American Medical Association; this publication had an immediate worldwide impact. Dr. Taussig and Dr. Blalock made numerous clinical presentations and case demonstrations in both Europe and the United States. The success of the procedure attracted many patients to Johns Hopkins for treatment, and it also brought many physicians to learn the techniques of the procedure. Dr. Taussig received widespread recognition and honors for her contributions to cardiology, including the French Chevalier Legion d'Honneur, the Italian Feltrinelli Prize, the Peruvian Presidential Medal of Honor, and the United States of America Medal of Freedom." |
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| Keywords: | gender equity, women in medicine, female role model |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: | History of technology and female role model. |
| Difficulty: | Easy |
| Interactivity Level: | Very Low |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | November 2007 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/ntausbio.htm |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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