User:KeetonStakely/sandbox

Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig

Born in : 1898 in Cambridge, Massachusetts Died in : 1986

Introduction: Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig was a physician who specialized in pediatrics. In her pediatrics degree she was also specialized in cardiology. What inspired her to become a doctor might have been the fact that her mother died when she was very young, and her grandfather was also a physician. . Her work was specialized in helping children. She received some prestigious and meritorious awards for her work in pediatrics.

Biography: Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig was born on 1898 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She died at the age of 88 on 1986. She had a rather privileged childhood. However, her life was not privileged because at the age of 11 her mother died of tuberculosis. Her father saw that she was a talented and smart girl and pushed her to get an education. However, when she was a young girl, Dr. Helen Taussig struggled with dyslexia. Dyslexia is a disorder that causes difficulty reading, writing, and comprehending words. This disorder did not deter her from going to school, and excelling at it as well. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, "...Taussig excelled in higher education. She graduated from the Cambridge School for Girls in 1917, and became a champion tennis player during her two years of study at Radcliffe." After her years at Radcliffe University Dr. Taussig visited California with her father and decided to continue her education there. She went on to attain a Bachelor's Degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1921. After attaining this degree Taussig headed back to Boston. Her aspiration was to study medicine at Harvard University, however, her father did not feel the same and told her that she should study public health instead because public health, as he is quoted as saying, "public health was more of a field for women than medicine." Helen Taussig went on to meet with the Dean at Harvard. In the meeting, the Dean told her that she was more than welcome to take the pre-requisite courses associated with a medical degree but that she would not graduate with a medical degree. Harvard did not allow women to attain a medical degree at this time, a decision and statute the Dean agreed with. This meeting with the Dean troubled Ms. Taussig to the point of anger and frustration. Helen Taussig did not let this meeting defeat her spirit and drive to become a doctor of medicine. Going against what her father's wishes were, Helen Taussig started taking the pre-medical courses from both Harvard and Boston College. Helen Taussig proved herself to be a bright student with lost of potential and one of the professors at Boston College (which allowed women to be a part of their laboratory classes) took notice of her brightness and asked her to intern with him. This internship eventually led to Taussig's work being published. After this, she was pushed to attend Johns Hopkins Medical School (which allowed women to attain degrees from them). Helen Taussig reached her goal of getting a medical degree in 1927 when she graduated from Johns Hopkins. After this she interned at Johns Hopkins in the cardiology department. This was followed up by an internship in the pediatrics department that lasted two years. In 1930 her dreams became true as she was promoted to the director of the Children's Heart Clinic in Johns Hopkins Hospital. She stayed here until her retirement in 1963.

Advancements and Contributions:

Dr. Helen Taussig's main concern, as her dream makes clear, was to help children. Specifically in the area of pediatric cardiology. Arguably one of her biggest advancements in the world of medicine had to do with Anoxemia or otherwise known as "blue baby" syndrome. "Blue baby" syndrome is a birth defect where when the baby is born, its heart is not pumping enough blood to the lungs to be oxygenated and sent to other parts of the body. The baby looks blue because of the lack of oxygenated blood, thus giving rise to the name "blue baby" syndrome. This birth defect was pretty much a death sentence on the baby who has been effected. Dr. Helen Taussig knew this was an atrocity and that it had to be fixed. One of Dr. Taussig's colleagues found a way to close the Ductus Arteriosis. This was a condition where too much blood was getting into the lungs. Dr. Helen Taussig's knew that her patients with "blue baby" syndrome needed more blood to get to their lungs. Her thought was that if something can be closed, shouldn't we be able to open it up? This idea led her to research this out. She went to see Dr. Robert Gross (the man who successfully close the Ductus Arteriosis. However, he would not help her. However, her ideas caught a glimpse of hope in 1941 when she met Dr. Alfred Blalock and his surgical technician Vivien Thomas. They agreed to try and help Dr. Taussig fix this blight happening to newborns. In 1944, Dr. Blalock and Dr. Taussig performed the first successful procedure on a child after vigorous testing. Dr. Tuassig and Dr. Blalock published ""The Surgical Treatment of Malformations of the Heart" in the May 1945 issue of The Journal of The American Medical Association " The procedure that Dr. Blalock and Dr. Taussig performed became known as the Blalock-Taussig operation. This operation took fire and began to be used all over the world to save babies. Today, the mortality rate for a baby born with "blue baby" syndrome is, according to the Jackson Laboratory, "<3%". Because of Dr. Helen Taussig's contribution and advancements in medicine, million of lives have been saved.

Interesting Fact:

The Technician that worked with Dr. Taussig and Dr. Blalock (Vivien Thomas) was not allowed to have his name be published with the other two because he was an African American man. The surgery, however, would not have been a success without him, because he was highly trained in cardiology and surgery.