PHYSICIAN

Vivien Thomas

1910 - 1985

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Vivien Theodore Thomas (August 29, 1910 – November 26, 1985) 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. Taussig. He was the assistant to Blalock in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and later at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Thomas was unique in that he did not have any professional education or experience in a research laboratory; however, he served as supervisor of the surgical laboratories at Johns Hopkins for 35 years. In 1976, Johns Hopkins awarded him an honorary doctorate and named him an Instructor of Surgery for the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Vivien Thomas is the 549th most popular physician (down from 508th in 2019), the 6,289th most popular biography from United States (down from 5,395th in 2019) and the 66th most popular American Physician.

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Among PHYSICIANS

Among physicians, Vivien Thomas ranks 549 out of 726. Before him are Jan Janský, Nicolás Monardes, Willem Piso, Paolo Macchiarini, John Ostrom, and Max Gerson. After him are Pierre Marie, Ugo Cerletti, Erik Adolf von Willebrand, Antonius Musa, Arkady Vorobyov, and Noël Martin Joseph de Necker.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1910, Vivien Thomas ranks 225. Before him are Marc Lawrence, Carlo Orlandi, Rodolpho Barteczko, Vakhtang Chabukiani, Ellen Braumüller, and Aldo Donati. After him are Léon Poliakov, Jutta Rüdiger, Charles Crichton, Henry L. Giclas, Miquel Crusafont i Pairó, and Walter Thiel. Among people deceased in 1985, Vivien Thomas ranks 157. Before him are Carlos Spadaro, Sanjeev Kumar, Givi Javakhishvili, Ladislav Ženíšek, Jock Stein, and Renato Olmi. After him are Tom Adams, Carmen Barth, Carlos Mota Pinto, Israel Regardie, E. B. White, and Bodil Joensen.

Others Born in 1910

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Vivien Thomas ranks 6,290 out of 20,380. Before him are Rance Howard (1928), Marilynne Robinson (1943), Ed Wynn (1886), Mike Bloomfield (1943), Richard H. Truly (1937), and Edmund Beecher Wilson (1856). After him are Hal B. Wallis (1898), Genevieve Cortese (1981), Deirdre McCloskey (1942), Ronnie Radke (1983), Don Bragg (1935), and Michael Paré (1958).

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Among PHYSICIANS In United States

Among physicians born in United States, Vivien Thomas ranks 66. Before him are Jill Stein (1950), Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884), Florence R. Sabin (1871), Frank H. Netter (1906), Ancel Keys (1904), and John Ostrom (1928). After him are William Beaumont (1785), Jeffrey Ullman (1942), Kenneth H. Cooper (1931), Dorothy Hansine Andersen (1901), John Jeffries (1745), and Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779).

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