Vivien Thomas survived on a janitors salary, though he was a skilled medical technician. The mastermind behind the first open-heart surgical procedure, but not a doctor himself, he verbally directed Dr. Alfred Blalock through the first hundred such procedures. Edwin Brit Wyckoff explains how this 34-year-old African American in the middle of the 20th century gained recognition for his contributions to medicine and how he evolved from a carpenter to an instructor of surgery.
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Vivien Thomas survived on a janitors salary, though he was a skilled medical technician. The mastermind behind the first open-heart surgical procedure, but not a doctor himself, he verbally directed Dr. Alfred Blalock through the first hundred such procedures. Edwin Brit Wyckoff explains how this 34-year-old African American in the middle of the 20th century gained recognition for his contributions to medicine and how he evolved from a carpenter to an instructor of surgery.
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