Alfred Blalock

From Freepedia

Alfred Blalock (April 5, 1899 - September 15, 1964) was a 20th century innovator in the field of medical science most noted for his research on the medical emergency condition Shock and Blue baby syndrome.

Born in Culloden, Georgia, Blalock received his undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia in 1918. Blalock earned his medical degree at Johns Hopkins in 1922. In 1925 he went to the new Vanderbilt University Hospital to become its first resident in surgery. He performed pioneering research on the causes and treatment of Shock which was responsible for the saving countless lives during WWII. Johns Hopkins called him back to his alma mater to the joint positions of surgeon-in-chief of the hospital and professor and director of the surgery department at the medical school. While at Johns Hopkins Blalock worked with his assistant Vivien Thomas on a shunt technique to cure the Blue baby syndrome. Blalock was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and awarded numerous honors including the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.

Alfred was born on April 15 in 1889. He graduated with an AB degree in 1918 and entered John Hopkins Medical School. Blalock earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1922. For the next two years, he was completing an Internship in Urology, then an Assistant Residency on the General Surgical Service. He moved to Boston, Massachuesetts, in the summer of 1925 to begin a Residency at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. But this job only lasted for a month or two.

So in September of 1925, he left Boston to go to Vanderbilt University in Nashville to work with Barney Brooks, who was the Professor of Surgery and Chief of the Surgical Service. He was also active in teaching third and fourth year medical students, and as a result was placed in charge of the surgical research laboratory. While in Vanderbilt University he worked on the nature and treatment of hemorrhagic and traumatic shock. He found out that surgical shock resulted from the loss of blood, and he encouraged the use of plasma as treatment following the onset of shock. He used dogs to experiment with traumatic shock. While at Vanderbilt, in 1938, he did an experiment in which the left subclavian artery was joined to the left pulmonary artery in an effort to produce pulmonary hypertension. Although the experiment failed, he returned to this idea years later.

When Blalock was offered Chief of Surgery at Johns Hopkins in 1941, he requested that Vivien come along with him. They formed a very close relationship that would last more than 30 years. Together they developed the shunt technique that was used as a mean of bypassing an obstruction of the aorta. While he was working on coarctation, Helen Taussig presented him with the problem of the blue-baby syndrome.

The syndrome consists of a hole in the wall between the heart's two major chambers, or ventricle, an enlarged right ventricle, a defective pulmonary valve that prevents full flow of blood to the lung, and cyanosis. Cyanosis is what causes the "blueness" in a baby. The first operation was on November 29, 1944 on Elieen Saxon. Even though this surgery only prolonged Elieen's death for two more months, it was a great starting stone for heart surgery. Even though just about everyone doubted Blalock, the operation was successful, which also brought along with it a steady flow of patients.

External Use

In May of 2004, Alan Rickman and Mos Def starred in Something the Lord Made, which was a life story about Blalock. Alan Rickman played Blalock, and Mos Def played Vivien Thomas.