Portrait of Helen B. Taussig
by Yousuf Karsh, ©Karsh
In 1930, Helen B. Taussig was appointed by Edwards A.
Park, professor of pediatrics, to head his cardiac clinic.
Taussig soon began to study the cardiac manifestations of disease, and
then her interest turned to congenital heart disease. Eventually she came to the
realization that the major physiological problem in tetralogy of Fallot (the blue-baby
syndrome) was lack of blood flow to the lung.
Taussig examining a blue-baby.
Photograph by permisssion Hearst Newspapers.
Although opinions vary as to the origins of the operation, Taussig
remembered listening to a conversation in 1943 between Alfred Blalock and Edwards
A. Park. The discussion had to do with the difficulty associated with cross-clamping the
descending aorta to repair a coarctation. Park inquired,
Could you not use the carotid artery as a bypass? It is a long,
straight artery and there are four vessels to the brain. Wouldn't it be possible to turn
the carotid artery down and anastomose it to the aorta below the coarctation?
Taussig spoke up,
If you could put the carotid artery into the descending aorta, couldn't
you put the subclavian artery into the pulmonary artery?
Regardless of the variance in the stories recounting the origination of
the procedure; it is clear Blalock together with Vivien Thomas, continued to move forward
with the problem of providing oxygen to the pulmonary artery. The shunt first tried at
Vanderbilt ultimately provided the answer. The operation was first performed on a very
ill, high-risk patient in 1944. Although the frail child died months later in a second
operation, the child survived long enough to demonstrate the survival of a surgical
procedure that would save the lives of tens of thousands of children.
Hands of Helen Taussig examining an infant.
Photograph by permission of Tadder Associates.
In 1945, Helen Taussig and Alfred Blalock published a joint paper on the
first three operations in the Journal of the American Medical Association; this
publication had an immediate worldwide impact.
The American Weekly, February 17, 1947
Taussig and Blalock made numerous clinical presentations and case
demonstrations in both Europe and the United States. The success of the procedure
attracted many patients to Johns Hopkins for treatment, and it also brought many
physicians to learn the techniques of the procedure.
Helen Taussig with a small patient in 1981.
Photograph by permission of Tadder Associates.
Taussig received international recognition and honors for her
contributions to medicine, including the French Chevalier Legion d'Honneur, the
Italian Feltrinelli Prize, the Peruvian Presidential Medal of Honor,
and here at home, the Albert Lasker Medical Research Award, and the United States of
America Medal of Freedom.
The U.S.A. Medal of Freedom awarded to Helen Taussig in 1964.
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