Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910[1] – November 26, 1985)[2] was an American laboratory supervisor who, in the 1940s, played a major role in developing a procedure now called the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt used to treat blue baby syndrome (now known as cyanotic heart disease) along with surgeon Alfred Blalock and cardiologist Helen B.

[3] Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty and racism to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country's most prominent surgeons.

In the 2004 HBO movie Something the Lord Made, based on Katie McCabe's National Magazine Award–winning Washingtonian article of the same title, Vivien Thomas was portrayed by Mos Def.

[14] This experience proved beneficial to Thomas, as he was able to secure a carpentry job at Fisk University repairing facility damages after graduating from high school.

Determined to broaden his skill set, in 1930 he reached out to childhood friend Charles Manlove (who was working at Vanderbilt University at the time) to ask if there were any jobs available.

[16] In the wake of the stock market crash in October 1929, Thomas put his educational plans on hold and, through a friend, secured a job in February 1930 as surgical research assistant with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Vanderbilt University.

[23] This work later evolved into research on crush syndrome[24] and saved the lives of thousands of soldiers on the battlefields of World War II.

At this same time, Blalock and Thomas began experimental work in vascular and cardiac surgery,[22] defying medical taboos against operating on the heart.

[26] Thomas arrived in Baltimore with his family in June of that year,[27] confronting a severe housing shortage and a level of racism worse than they had endured in Nashville.

In infants born with this defect, blood is shunted past the lungs, creating oxygen deprivation and a blue pallor.

[30] Having treated many such patients in her work in Johns Hopkins' Harriet Lane Home, Taussig was desperate to find a surgical cure.

[39] Blalock and his team operated again, on an 11-year-old girl, this time with complete success, and the patient was able to leave the hospital three weeks after the surgery.

[39] The three cases formed the basis for the article that was published in the May 1945 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, giving credit to Blalock and Taussig for the procedure.

Within a year, the operation known as the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig shunt had been performed on more than 200 patients at Johns Hopkins, with parents bringing their suffering children from thousands of miles away.

[40] Thomas' surgical techniques included one he developed in 1946 for improving circulation in patients whose great vessels (the aorta and the pulmonary artery) were transposed.

[41] A complex operation called an atrial septectomy, the procedure was executed so flawlessly by Thomas that Blalock, upon examining the nearly undetectable suture line, was prompted to remark, "Vivien, this looks like something the Lord made.

[47] Although Thomas never wrote or spoke publicly about his ongoing desire to return to college and obtain a medical degree, his widow, the late Clara Flanders Thomas, revealed in a 1987 interview with Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe that her husband had clung to the possibility of further education throughout the blue baby period, and had abandoned the idea only with great reluctance.

[49] During Thomas' time working at Vanderbilt in the lab, he struggled with his salary because he needed to be able to provide for himself, but he also was saving up to go back to school.

Tension with Blalock continued to build when he failed to recognize the contributions that Thomas had made in the world-famous blue baby procedure, which led to a rift in their relationship.

[53] In 1968, the surgeons Thomas trained — who had then become chiefs of surgical departments throughout America — commissioned the painting of his portrait (by Bob Gee, oil on canvas, 1969, The Johns Hopkins Alan Mason Chesney Medical Archives)[54] and arranged to have it hung next to Blalock's in the lobby of the Alfred Blalock Clinical Sciences Building.

After working there for 37 years, Thomas was also finally appointed to the faculty of the School of Medicine as Instructor of Surgery, although due to his lack of an official medical degree, he was never allowed to operate on a living patient.

He was overjoyed that he was finally getting recognition for his significant role in the research leading to developmental skills that many surgeons had begun to practice.

Having learned about Thomas on the day of his death, Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe brought his story to public attention in a 1989 article entitled "Like Something the Lord Made", which won the 1990 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing.

In 2004, Eaton, Thomas's nephew, estimated that he had signed five different deals over the years to allow film companies to tell his uncle's story.

[61] The McCabe article was also brought to Hollywood through the persistent efforts of Washington, D.C., dentist Irving Sorkin,[62] and formed the basis for the Emmy- and Peabody Award–winning 2004 HBO film Something the Lord Made.

In 1993, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation instituted the Vivien Thomas Scholarship for Medical Science and Research, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline.

In fall 2004, the Baltimore City Public School System opened the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy.