This week, a piece of history made and filmed at Johns
Hopkins hits the big screen at one of Baltimore's most
distinguished venues.
Johns Hopkins Medicine will co-host the Baltimore area
premiere of HBO Films' Something The Lord Made, an
adaptation of the landmark development of the "blue baby"
operation that launched a golden age of heart surgery. The
film will be shown at an invitational screening on Tuesday,
May 18, at the Senator Theatre.
The movie makes its television debut at 9 p.m. on May
30 on HBO. (For additional play dates, see box.)
Something the Lord Made is the story of two men
— an ambitious white surgeon, Alfred Blalock, and a
gifted black carpenter turned lab technician, Vivien Thomas
— who at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1944 defied racial
barriers and together helped pioneer a medical field.
Directed by multiple Emmy winner Joseph Sargent, the
film stars Alan Rickman (Blalock), Mos Def (Thomas) and
Mary Stuart Masterson (Helen Taussing, Blalock's
colleague/collaborator), along with Kyra Sedgwick,
Gabrielle Union and Charles S. Dutton.
Vivien Thomas, carpenter turned
technician
PHOTO BY THE ALAN MASON CHESNEY
MEDICAL ARCHIVES OF THE JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS
|
Premieres also will be held in New York City and Los
Angeles. On hand with cast members at the Baltimore
premiere will be several of the doctors who worked with
Blalock, Thomas and Taussig and who still are associated
with Hopkins.
J. Alex Haller, professor emeritus of pediatric
surgery at the School of Medicine, trained under Blalock
and Thomas in the 1950s and was a primary consultant on the
film. Haller, who attended a private screening, said that
the movie contains several powerful moments of discovery
and collaboration.
"This is a story of two very talented individuals from
different backgrounds, during the period of segregation,
who worked as partners on such a remarkable achievement, an
approach to the management of blue babies," Haller said. "A
touching moment for me came when they operated on the first
blue baby. As they operated and new blood began to flow
into the infant's heart, they took off the sheets and you
saw the child's color change from blue to pink, and then
someone made the statement, 'It's a miracle.' This film
documents the development of the first operative procedure
on a congenital heart abnormality. It opened the door to
heart surgery for the next 50 years."
The bulk of the movie was filmed in Baltimore, at and
around Johns Hopkins University, on both the East Baltimore
and Homewood campuses.
"We were very fortunate that Baltimore still has the
look of the time period, so we were able to use locations
that really capture the time and place extremely well,"
said the film's executive producer, Robert Cort. "And Johns
Hopkins was remarkably helpful during the process. There's
a scene at the end of the film where Vivien Thomas is given
an honorary doctorate in a wonderful, wood-paneled lecture
hall. The location where the scene was shot [Hurd Hall] is
the exact same place in which he received his honor in real
life. The genuineness of being able to work at Hopkins was
a tremendous help to both our director, Joe Sargent, and,
of course, to our actors in creating a real sense of
history."
Born in Culloden, Ga., Alfred Blalock received his
medical degree in 1922 from the School of Medicine. After
his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins, Blalock
joined the faculty of the Vanderbilt Medical School, where
he made important advances in the study of shock trauma. In
1941, he returned to Johns Hopkins as professor and
director of surgery at the School of Medicine and surgeon
in chief of the hospital, positions he held until his
retirement in 1964. He died that same year.
Thomas, denied a chance to become a doctor by the
Depression, proved that intelligence, persistence and
ability transcend artificially imposed barriers. A
carpenter, he largely taught himself the skills that led
him to become Blalock's right-hand person. In 1976, he was
awarded an honorary doctorate by Johns Hopkins. Upon his
retirement in 1979, he became instructor emeritus of
surgery. He died in 1985.
Together, Blalock and Thomas, inspired by the work of
Hopkins pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, developed the
"blue baby" operation on infants suffering from a
congenital heart defect that slowly suffocates them,
turning them blue. The operation, which surgically
corrected a defect known as the Tetralogy of Fallot, broke
the last barrier to operating directly on the heart, long
considered taboo and an impossibility. In the process, the
team pioneered stitching techniques and procedures such as
the use of a shunt to keep blood flowing to the heart
during surgery.
The film's title refers to a quote attributed to
Blalock, who upon seeing Thomas' deft suturing work during
a trial shunt procedure on a dog, said, "Are you sure you
did this, Vivien? This looks like something the Lord
made."
Levi Watkins, a professor of cardiac surgery at the
School of Medicine, who attended a recent screening of the
film and knew Thomas, said that the film recounts a vital
piece of medical, social and Johns Hopkins history.
"It shows probably one of the most incredible
operations ever developed at Johns Hopkins, one that
forever changed the world inside and out — a moment
of pure science and discovery," Watkins said. "Perhaps even
more important, the film shows what two people, black and
white, can do working together to transcend racial
barriers."
Watkins, who met and befriended Thomas in the early
1970s, said that he regarded Thomas as a mentor and that,
following his death, he has sought every opportunity to
spread the word on his accomplishments in the field of
heart surgery.
"It is nice to see that finally, after all these
years, his story is being told," Watkins said. "He is
perhaps one of the most untalked about, unappreciated
giants in the African-American community. He contributed to
the birth of heart surgery, proving you could do it in
children, and all this happened at Johns Hopkins. I think
this is a tremendous thing, and, knowing Vivien personally,
seeing this recognition is what really lifts me up."
For more on the film and the history of heart surgery,
go to
www.hopkinsmedicine.org/stlm.
GO TO