医学英語のリーディングとリスニング

Vivien Thomas was one of the pioneers of cardiovascular surgery. Vivien Thomas helped devise the surgical techniques used in the first heart surgery. Vivien Thomas designed and created surgical tools that are still used today in cardiovascular surgery. Vivien Thomas trained many of the leaders in surgery as part of his work at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Vivien Thomas' portrait hangs in the foyer of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine along with other pioneers and luminaries in the history of medicine who made Johns Hopkins their home.

While all of these statements are true, they are only half of a truly amazing yet disheartening story that reveals the ability of one man to triumph over adversity and the shortsightedness of society, specifically American society, as it put nearly insurmountable barriers in his way.

Vivien Thomas was also a black American who was the grandson of a slave. He was born in 1910 and he graduated from a segregated high school, trained as a carpenter under his father's tutelage and had aspirations of going to college and eventually medical school. However, Thomas' dreams were dashed by the loss of his life savings as a result of the stock market crash of 1929 and the resulting bleak economy as America entered the Great Depression.

So instead of medical school, Vivien Thomas went to work in the laboratory of a brash, young and ambitious surgeon named Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University. Blalock quickly realized that he had a uniquely talented individual working under him. Blalock gave Thomas the opportunity to learn how to conduct basic medical research and Thomas leapt at the chance by not only learning what Blalock had to teach him, but learning on his own and eventually working as a partner rather than an assistant to Blalock.

Blalock was doing research on solving the problem of traumatic and hemorrhagic shock which was almost always fatal. The treatment for traumatic shock during that period was to constrict the flow of blood. Blalock and Thomas determined that fluid replacement was a much more effective approach and they revolutionized the way that this condition was treated.

Doors opened for Blalock after this landmark research and he was offered the position of Chief of Surgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, his alma mater, which he accepted. Blalock took Thomas along with him to run his laboratory which Thomas did expertly. Blalock and Thomas then combined forces with Dr. Helen Taussig, a pediatric cardiologist, to try to find a surgical solution to the problem of Tetralogy of Fallot, a severe congenital abnormality of the heart.

The statement "find a surgical solution" to a cardiac problem hardly raises an eyebrow today. However, the idea of operating on the heart was not just controversial, but actually considered taboo and even unethical in the 1940s. This taboo had to be ignored, if individuals born with Tetralogy of Fallot were ever to be successfully treated. The prognosis for these patients prior to advent of cardiovascular surgery was bleak and even if they did survive for a limited period of time, their quality of life was extremely poor.

Tetralogy of Fallot or as it is also known "blue baby syndrome" is a congenital abnormality of the heart which involves four separate defects. Babies born with Tetralogy of Fallot have a bluish pallor because oxygen does not reach the lungs causing cyanosis. The two men looked for a way to surgically reroute the circulatory "plumbing" and create new connections in order to oxygenate the blood. They achieved this goal by performing an anastomosis of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery.

Thomas did most of the basic research to create a disease model in dogs and perfect the surgical technique. Blalock performed the actual groundbreaking surgery on an eighteen-month-old infant named Eileen Saxon on November 29th, 1944 with Thomas looking over Blalock's shoulder providing guidance and advice.

While the work and contributions of both men were critical to the success of the first cardiovascular surgical procedure and the subsequent flourishing of the field of cardiovascular surgery, only Blalock's efforts were initially recognized by the public. Thomas, due solely to the color of his skin, remained in the shadows and his accomplishments were largely unacknowledged until much later in his life. The extent of these accomplishments is a true testament to a man of incredible brillance, determination and perseverance.