Partners of the Heart

Descriptions:

Partners of the Heart is the autobiography of Vivien Thomas, a Black medical technician who, despite segregation, became a crucial partner to surgeon Alfred Blalock, co-inventing the field of cardiac surgery and developing the life-saving Blalock-Taussig shunt for “blue baby syndrome”. The book details their groundbreaking work at Johns Hopkins, Thomas’s journey from a janitor to a renowned surgical innovator, and the development of modern cardiac surgery, including research on shock.

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Overview

Recounts the extraordinary segregation-era partnership between two surgeons--one black and one white--who defied the medical establishment and changed the course of cardiac surgery.

Cast