Based on true events
“Where you see risks, I see opportunities.”
Until sixty-some years ago, the concept of surgery on the heart was taboo because it was thought to violate the purity of the heart.
Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) was obsessed in treating traumatic shock. Just as obsessed as master carpenter Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) was in going to medical school.
However the Depression slowed all construction trade so Thomas needed to find a new job. This led him to get a job in Blalock’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He was hired to tend the dogs used for medical experimentation in and to mop the floors. But Thomas observed everything going on and quickly learned of Blalock’s passion. Thomas also read all the medical books he could in the lab’s library. Blalock saw potential in Thomas and soon moved him up to the position of lab technician even though he couldn’t yet get that official grade of job at the University.
Suddenly Thomas lost seven years worth of savings when his bank collapsed, he despaired of ever being able to become a doctor. He becomes even more involved with Blalock’s work and learns to walk out on Blalock when the doctor’s temperamental outbursts insult and degraded Thomas. But Blalock needs Thomas and he learns to be more respectful of Thomas -- and comes to truly respect him.
Years later when Blalock was offered the position of Director of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, he took Vivien Thomas with him.
Blalock’s methods of treating traumatic shock had saved hundreds of lives of American soldiers fighting in WWII. He was looking for the next horizon to explore. Blalock soon meets Dr. Taussig (Mary Stuart Masterson) who runs the Harriet Lane Clinic for Children. She inspires him to explore congenital heart abnormalities, specifically infants with Tetralogy of Fallot – blue babies – who are suffocating due to a blockage of the main coronary artery to the lung. Blalock was inspired anew.
First they needed to create a disease model in dogs to simulate the blue baby syndrome in babies. Then they needed to evolve a way to correct it. With Vivien Thomas’ keen insights and ability to develop specialized equipment (including the respirator), improvise surgical tools (miniature surgical clamps and canulas), and perfect techniques, Blalock and Thomas were finally able to perfect a method to save babies lives in 1944.
Among the medical residents at Johns Hopkins’ who were brave enough to assist in Blalock’s first heart surgery was Dr. Denton Cooley (Timothy Scanlan) who went on to become a pioneer in heart transplants.
Kyra Sedgwick plays Blalock’s wife Mary; Gabrielle Union plays Thomas’ wife Clara; Clayton Lebouef portrays Thomas’ brother who was a civil rights leader in the field of education: Charles Dutton plays Thomas’ skeptical father.
This is a significant film about improvement of the social and medical condition in this country.
Based on Vivien Thomas’ autobiography, Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work With Alfred Blalock.
Directed by Joseph Sargeant. Made for HBO.
Run time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Not rated by MPAA.
My personal rating: A
Until sixty-some years ago, the concept of surgery on the heart was taboo because it was thought to violate the purity of the heart.
Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) was obsessed in treating traumatic shock. Just as obsessed as master carpenter Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) was in going to medical school.
However the Depression slowed all construction trade so Thomas needed to find a new job. This led him to get a job in Blalock’s laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. He was hired to tend the dogs used for medical experimentation in and to mop the floors. But Thomas observed everything going on and quickly learned of Blalock’s passion. Thomas also read all the medical books he could in the lab’s library. Blalock saw potential in Thomas and soon moved him up to the position of lab technician even though he couldn’t yet get that official grade of job at the University.
Suddenly Thomas lost seven years worth of savings when his bank collapsed, he despaired of ever being able to become a doctor. He becomes even more involved with Blalock’s work and learns to walk out on Blalock when the doctor’s temperamental outbursts insult and degraded Thomas. But Blalock needs Thomas and he learns to be more respectful of Thomas -- and comes to truly respect him.
Years later when Blalock was offered the position of Director of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, he took Vivien Thomas with him.
Blalock’s methods of treating traumatic shock had saved hundreds of lives of American soldiers fighting in WWII. He was looking for the next horizon to explore. Blalock soon meets Dr. Taussig (Mary Stuart Masterson) who runs the Harriet Lane Clinic for Children. She inspires him to explore congenital heart abnormalities, specifically infants with Tetralogy of Fallot – blue babies – who are suffocating due to a blockage of the main coronary artery to the lung. Blalock was inspired anew.
First they needed to create a disease model in dogs to simulate the blue baby syndrome in babies. Then they needed to evolve a way to correct it. With Vivien Thomas’ keen insights and ability to develop specialized equipment (including the respirator), improvise surgical tools (miniature surgical clamps and canulas), and perfect techniques, Blalock and Thomas were finally able to perfect a method to save babies lives in 1944.
Among the medical residents at Johns Hopkins’ who were brave enough to assist in Blalock’s first heart surgery was Dr. Denton Cooley (Timothy Scanlan) who went on to become a pioneer in heart transplants.
Kyra Sedgwick plays Blalock’s wife Mary; Gabrielle Union plays Thomas’ wife Clara; Clayton Lebouef portrays Thomas’ brother who was a civil rights leader in the field of education: Charles Dutton plays Thomas’ skeptical father.
This is a significant film about improvement of the social and medical condition in this country.
Based on Vivien Thomas’ autobiography, Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work With Alfred Blalock.
Directed by Joseph Sargeant. Made for HBO.
Run time: 1 hour, 57 minutes
Not rated by MPAA.
My personal rating: A
