Vivien Thomas was a brilliant medical helper who had a huge impact on heart surgery! Even though he never went to medical school, he got a job helping a famous doctor in a laboratory. Vivien was so smart and great with his hands that he learned how to do very difficult science experiments and even taught the doctors how to do special surgeries!
Vivien helped invent a completely new way to fix the hearts of “blue babies,” which were babies who were very sick because their hearts weren’t pumping enough oxygen. In the 1940s, he stood right behind the surgeon during the first operation to make sure everything went perfectly! Vivien’s amazing skills and clever ideas helped save the lives of thousands of babies and changed the world of medicine forever!