1950's Medicine and Health | Taussig, Helen B. 1898-1986

UNHERALDED DEVELOPER OF PROCEDURE TO CURE "BLUE-BABY SYNDROME"

Preparation.

In 1927 Helen B. Taussig graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School, and in 1930 she assumed the directorship of the school's Pediatrie Cardiac Clinic. She worked in the field of congenital heart disease, particularly the "blue-baby syndrome," in which blood left unoxygenated by a defect in the circulatory system turns the skin of babies blue.

Partnership with Alfred Blalock.

In 1940 Taussig began to ponder the possibility of an operation to increase blood flow to the lungs, and she enlisted the aid of Dr. Alfred Blalock, a full professor in surgery at Johns Hopkins, in 1942. Taussig suggested to Blalock that he attempt to increase the blood flow to the lungs by joining two arteries that are naturally close to one another, the subclavian artery and the pulmonary artery.

Success.

In November 1944, after more than two...