Philippines, September 30, 2015
Dr Vivien Thomas at Wiki
While in a hotel room, I happened to watch the movie at HBO, Something the Lord Made, a movie about Dr. Vivien Thomas, a black lab research assistant, and Dr. Alfred Blalock. We are reminded of book Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney, Chapter 4, page 63 on leadership role models. The characters mentioned: Jesuits Benedetto Goes, Matteo Ricci and Christopher Clavius are most unlikely leaders in the way we ordinary sense we understand it. They are considered leaders though they do not have a battalion of followers, but in being good/the best in what they do.
Same thing with Dr. Vivien Thomas. He was called doctor at John Hopkins University Hospital, an honorary degree though he barely passed high school.
He was black and worked at animal research lab of Vanderbilt University. for Dr. Alfred Blalock, a surgeon. He and Dr. Blalock accomplished the following: 1. destroying the myth that shock was caused by toxins rather it is due to loss of fluids thus in WW 1 countless lives were saved due to IV infusion at the battlefield to save soldiers from hypovolemic shock, (crush syndrome 2. did the first operation to save blue babies (known as Tetralogy of Fallot) and perfected the Blalock - Taussig shunt (Dra Helen Taussig was pediatric surgeon who suggested that there should be a shunt made between the right pulmonary artery and right subclavian artery
It was Vivien who provided the needles and instruments needed for the operation and Vivien stood on the stool behind Dr. Blalock and coached him while doing the first operation. Dr Vivien perfected the procedures working on dogs at the lab. Vivien did the suture so perfectly on the blood vessels that Dr. Blalock remarked that only the Lord could have made the sutures (hence the title of the book/movie)
However, since Thomas was black, his relationship with Blalock nor with Hopkins were perfect. He was classified as janitor and paid as such even though we was doing work of post graduate research assistant. He often worked as bartender at socials in country club where he served his student in heart surgery He was not included in the pictures regarding the landmark heart surgery nor were his work recognized in journals. He quit work (and later returned )because of discordant relationship with Blalock.
Vivien did not have other people reporting to him, and definitely did not have followers among the whites. But what did John Hopkins do later to Dr. Thomas? And what does the medical world owe to Dr. Thomas now?
He was later named director of research labs, given an honorary degree of Doctor of Medicine, allowed to give lectures, and picture hung at John Hopkins Hospital hall way.
His being black, his low status at John Hopkins, his relationship with Dr. Blalock did not prevent him from pursuing his pioneering work in heart surgery. Thomas' work pioneered cardiac surgery of which about l.5 million is one in US annually (oftentimes abused) and lessened deaths due to blue baby syndrome
This story supports the idea that innovation distinguishes the leader from the followers, and reading makes one a good leader.
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