that it should be possible to get more blood to the lungs, "as a plumber changes pipes around." Although Taussig was not aware of it at that time, Blalock and Thomas had already experimented with such an anastomosis, one that Blalock had conceived years earlier for a different purpose but which had the unanticipated effect of re-routing blood to the lungs. The operation involved the joining of the subclavian artery to the pulmonary artery. After meeting with Taussig, the two men set about perfecting the operation in the animal lab, with Thomas performing the subclavian-to-pulmonary anastomosis alone in some 200 laboratory dogs, then adapting the instruments for the first human surgery from those used on the experimental animals and coaching Blalock through the first 100 operations on infants. Thomas' autobiographical account, corroborated by the participants in the early tetralogy operations (Denton Cooley and the late William P. Longmire, Jr., intern and resident respectively during the surgery) has led to the recent conclusion that Thomas' contribution, both experimentally and clinically, was so critical that he should have received credit for the procedure along with Blalock and Taussig. However, because of the racial prejudices of the time, and the academic custom which generally precluded mention of non-degreed lab assistants (Thomas had no formal education beyond high school), he did not receive the honor of having the shunt named after him. The 2004 HBO television movie Something the Lord Made, based on Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe's 1989 article of the same name, was made about his role in the historic Blue Baby surgery, as was the 2003 public television documentary Partners of the Heart. References Partners of the Heart: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock, by Vivien T. Thomas (originally published as Pioneering Research in Surgical Shock and Cardiovascular Surgery: Vivien Thomas and His Work with Alfred Blalock), University of Pennsylvania Press, 1985. Cardiac surgery Congenital heart defects Pediatric surgical procedures Thoracic surgical procedures