Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm Tracy Vie Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. Today we
Speaker 1: have the first episode in something that is not exactly
Speaker 1: a two parter. It is more like two interconnected episodes,
Speaker 1: and they're so intertwined that when I was researching and
Speaker 1: writing them, I had both outlines open the whole time.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I also had two browser windows and two sets
Speaker 1: of PDFs full of research. The episodes are on Helen
Speaker 1: Tausig and Vivian Thomas, who worked with surgeon Alfred Blaylock
Speaker 1: to develop a surgical treatment for children who had cyanotic
Speaker 1: heart conditions. It's also called blue baby syndrome. This surgery
Speaker 1: was performed for the first time in We have gotten
Speaker 1: just a steady trickle of requests for an episode on
Speaker 1: Vivian Thomas over the years, some of them as recently
Speaker 1: as the last week. But every time I started to
Speaker 1: look into it, I became equally interested in Helen Tausig.
Speaker 1: She was the one who suggested that Blaylock tried to
Speaker 1: find a surgical approach to congenital heart conditions like te
Speaker 1: trilogy of follow and then Thomas was the one who
Speaker 1: actually worked out how to do this procedure. Basically, Tausig
Speaker 1: had a dream, and Thomas and Blaylock made that dream
Speaker 1: into a reality. Tausig's contribution was publicly acknowledged at the
Speaker 1: time that it happened, but she did not receive nearly
Speaker 1: the amount of recognition that Blaylock did. And then as
Speaker 1: for Thomas, his contributions were not publicly recognized at all
Speaker 1: until much much later. So today we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about Helen Tausig, including how she helped found the specialty
Speaker 1: of pediatric cardiology, and then in the next episode we'll
Speaker 1: talk about Vivian Thomas and how he developed this surgery
Speaker 1: that Helen Tausig had the idea for. Helen Brook Tausig
Speaker 1: was born May in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was the youngest
Speaker 1: child of Frank and Edith Guild Tausig. Frank was a
Speaker 1: Harvard professor and an economist who would later serve as
Speaker 1: chair of the Federal Tariff Commission and as a member
Speaker 1: of the Advisory Committee on Peace in the Paris Peace
Speaker 1: Conference at the end of World War One. Edith had
Speaker 1: been one of the first students at Radcliffe College, where
Speaker 1: she had studied biology and zoology. Helen contracted an illness
Speaker 1: that affected her hearing when she was a child. Sources
Speaker 1: are a little contradictory about whether it was per tessis
Speaker 1: or the flu or some other infection. She and her
Speaker 1: mother also both contracted tuberculosis, and Edith died of it
Speaker 1: when Helen was only eleven. Helen had been really close
Speaker 1: to her mother, who had shared her love of botany
Speaker 1: and nature with her children, but then after Edith's death,
Speaker 1: Helen became a lot closer to her father. This wasn't
Speaker 1: only because Helen had just lost her mom. It was
Speaker 1: also because she had dyslexia. At the time, very little
Speaker 1: was known about dyslexia, or how to treat it, or
Speaker 1: how to make reading and writing more accessible to people
Speaker 1: with it, and while Helen really enjoyed learning, reading in
Speaker 1: particular was very hard for her. This was compounded by
Speaker 1: the way she was treated at school. Teachers would have
Speaker 1: students read aloud in front of the class until they
Speaker 1: made a mistake, and for Helen, the combination of dyslexia
Speaker 1: and her anxiety about making mistakes in front of the
Speaker 1: class meant that errors were both frequent and particularly embarrassing.
Speaker 1: Helen's father tutored her extensively, and while she did go
Speaker 1: on to publish more than one articles during her career,
Speaker 1: reading was never something that came particularly easy to her.
Speaker 1: Helen graduated from Cambridge School for Girls in nineteen seventeen,
Speaker 1: and from there she followed in her mother's footsteps and
Speaker 1: spent two years at Radcliffe College, where she was on
Speaker 1: the basketball and tennis teams. She did well at Radcliffe,
Speaker 1: but she also found being there a little bit frustrating.
Speaker 1: Radcliffe had been established does a women's college for Harvard,
Speaker 1: and her father was a renowned Harvard professor, so as
Speaker 1: long as she was a Radcliffe she was always Frank
Speaker 1: Tausig's daughter. She wondered whether the successes that she was
Speaker 1: having there were based on her own merit or were
Speaker 1: based on her connection to him. After taking a trip
Speaker 1: to California, Helen decided that the University of California at
Speaker 1: Berkeley might be a better fit for her, and she
Speaker 1: transferred there. She graduated in By this point she wanted
Speaker 1: to study medicine, and her father suggested that she studied
Speaker 1: public health, which was, in his opinion, a good field
Speaker 1: for women. Harvard was opening a new School of Public Health,
Speaker 1: having previously run a public health program in conjunction with
Speaker 1: M I. T. However, Harvard was not conferring degrees to women,
Speaker 1: something that also just came up in our episode on
Speaker 1: Cecilia Payne Gaposhkin. When Tausig met with Milton J. Rosno,
Speaker 1: who was dean of Harvard School of Public Health, she
Speaker 1: asked him who would be foolish enough to spend four
Speaker 1: years at a program that would not actually confer a
Speaker 1: degree at the end. His answer was no one, I hope,
Speaker 1: and then she said, I'll not be the first to
Speaker 1: disappoint you. Good afternoon. A lot of accounts describe her
Speaker 1: as kind of shy, but she could also be salty
Speaker 1: when she needed to. And Teusa still wanted to study medicine, though,
Speaker 1: so she got permission to take a histology course at Harvard,
Speaker 1: but she wasn't allowed to interact with the other students,
Speaker 1: and she had to do all of her lab work alone.
Speaker 1: Her professor, Dr John Lewis Bremer, advised her to study
Speaker 1: at Boston University Medical School. That school had been established
Speaker 1: in eighteen seventy three. When Boston University merged with New
Speaker 1: England Female Medical College, becoming the first co educational medical
Speaker 1: school in the United States. It was at BU that
Speaker 1: Tausig started studying the heart. Her anatomy professor, Dr Alexander
Speaker 1: Beg was also the dean of the medical school, and
Speaker 1: he suggested that she studied bovine hearts. This led to
Speaker 1: her first published paper, which was co authored with Faith L. Meserve.
Speaker 1: It was titled Rhythmic Contractions and Isolated Muscle Strips of
Speaker 1: Mammalian ventricle and in this paper they demonstrated that strips
Speaker 1: of cardiac muscle from mammals beat intrinsically, and that was
Speaker 1: something that had already been established in reptile hearts, but
Speaker 1: not in mammals. Tausig really excelled in her work at
Speaker 1: Boston University, to the point that Beg thought she might
Speaker 1: be welcomed at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. A
Speaker 1: large part of the funding for the Johns Hopkins Medical
Speaker 1: School had come from the Women's Fund Committee, organized by
Speaker 1: Mary Elizabeth Garrett and other major donors. The establishment of
Speaker 1: the medical school was only possible thanks to their contributions,
Speaker 1: which were made under the condition that women be allowed
Speaker 1: to enroll and given the same opportunities as men. I
Speaker 1: kind of love this pay for this med school, but
Speaker 1: only a f women can go here. When Tausig applied
Speaker 1: to Johns Hopkins, her letters of reference included one from
Speaker 1: Harvard professor Dr Walter Cannon, which read, in part quote,
Speaker 1: if women were admitted to Harvard, I would enthusiastically vote
Speaker 1: for her admission. Ultimately, she was admitted at Johns Hopkins,
Speaker 1: and when she started there in ninety three, her class
Speaker 1: included sixty men and ten women. Helen Tausig earned her
Speaker 1: MD from Johns Hopkins in nine seven, and she hoped
Speaker 1: to continue on there with an internship in internal medicine,
Speaker 1: but there was only one space available for a woman,
Speaker 1: and that went to Dr Vivian Tappan, whose g p
Speaker 1: A was two tents of a point higher than Tausig's.
Speaker 1: Tausig had been working at the Johns Hopkins Heart Clinic,
Speaker 1: and Dr Edwards Perkins offered her the chance to spend
Speaker 1: her next year there. After that year was up, she
Speaker 1: started a residency in pediatrics under Dr Edwards Park, who
Speaker 1: was newly arrived on the Johns Hopkins faculty at this point.
Speaker 1: Doctor Tausig's medical education included an empty and additional work
Speaker 1: in cardiac care and pediatrics, and all of that came
Speaker 1: together in n We're going to talk about that more
Speaker 1: after a sponsor break. When Dr Edwards Park started working
Speaker 1: at Johns Hopkins, he thought that the children with acute
Speaker 1: medical needs, we're getting pretty good medical care there, but
Speaker 1: he didn't think that was as much the case when
Speaker 1: it came to their long term follow ups or when
Speaker 1: it came to ongoing treatment for children who had chronic issues.
Speaker 1: So to try to correct this problem, he established four
Speaker 1: specialty clinics for children at Johns Hopkins. There was a
Speaker 1: pulmonary clinic which focused largely on tuberculosis, an endocrine clinic,
Speaker 1: a psychiatric clinic, and a cardiac clinic. Each of those
Speaker 1: employed social workers who could follow up with patients and
Speaker 1: their families at home. These clinics were headquartered at the
Speaker 1: Harriet Lane Home, then known as the Harriet Lane Home
Speaker 1: for Invalid Children. Harriet Lane Johnston, the niece of President
Speaker 1: James Buchanan, who also served as his first Lady, had
Speaker 1: left Johns Hopkins four hundred thousand dollars in her will
Speaker 1: in memory of her two sons who had died of
Speaker 1: rheumatic fever in childhood. The Harriet Lane Home opened in
Speaker 1: nineteen twelve. Although it wasn't the first children's hospital in
Speaker 1: the US, that was the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, which
Speaker 1: was established in eighteen fifty five, it was the first
Speaker 1: one to be connected to a medical school. Although the
Speaker 1: Harriet Lane Home closed in nineteen seventy two, the Harriet
Speaker 1: Lane Clinic still operates at Johns Hopkins. In nineteen thirty,
Speaker 1: Park appointed Dr Helen Tausig as head of the children's
Speaker 1: Heart clinic at the Harriet Lane Home. She was only
Speaker 1: thirty two years old at the time, and at first
Speaker 1: she tried to turn this offer down because she did
Speaker 1: not think she had enough experience for it. In the end, though,
Speaker 1: she accepted, and she continued in this role until her
Speaker 1: retirement in nineteen sixty three. As Tausig had been finishing
Speaker 1: her medical training and starting in this new role, she
Speaker 1: had also been losing more of her hearing. She used
Speaker 1: a hearing aid which she carried on a strap around
Speaker 1: her neck, and she had an amplifying stethoscope that had
Speaker 1: been designed specifically for her. She also learned to read
Speaker 1: lips and to palpate patient's heart rhythms using her hands
Speaker 1: and fingers. Over time, she learned how to distinguish heart
Speaker 1: murmurs based on how they felt, including murmurs that weren't
Speaker 1: audibly distinguishable from one another when hearing through a stethoscope.
Speaker 1: I think this is the coolest thing ever. Since she
Speaker 1: couldn't judge the volume of her own voice when teaching,
Speaker 1: Tausig also had a friend sit in the back of
Speaker 1: the lecture hall to signal her if she needed to
Speaker 1: be louder or quieter, so when she started at this clinic,
Speaker 1: a big part of the children's cardiac clinics work at
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins involved treating children whose hearts had been damaged
Speaker 1: by rheumatic fever. Rheumatic fever is a condition that can
Speaker 1: develop after a person has had strep throat or scarlet fever,
Speaker 1: both of which are caused by group A streptococcus. Rheumatic
Speaker 1: fever can cause heart murmurs, an enlarged heart, and fluid
Speaker 1: accumulation around the heart, and it was a lot more
Speaker 1: common before the development of antibiotics that could kill Streptococcus bacteria,
Speaker 1: which happened later on in the nineteen thirties, but Park
Speaker 1: wanted Tausig to focus her work at the clinic beyond
Speaker 1: just rheumatic fever patients. He also wanted her to study
Speaker 1: congenital heart diseases. Congenital conditions are ones that developed before birth,
Speaker 1: and congenital heart conditions are the most common type of
Speaker 1: congenital disorder. At the time, though there hadn't been much
Speaker 1: research into congenital conditions at all, and especially congenital heart conditions.
Speaker 1: They weren't really treatable, and in many cases they were fatal.
Speaker 1: It seemed as though there was really nothing to be
Speaker 1: done to help the patients, so in the minds of
Speaker 1: a lot of researchers, there really wasn't any point in
Speaker 1: studying them. Having gotten this direction from Parks specifically to
Speaker 1: study um, Tausig started gathering as much information as she
Speaker 1: could about her patients hearts. The cardiac clinic was outfitted
Speaker 1: with fluoroscopy and X ray machines, as well as electric
Speaker 1: cardiogram units, so Tausig was imaging patients hearts and measuring
Speaker 1: their electrical activity. Since these conditions were sadly so often fatal,
Speaker 1: she would also perform autopsies, so the information that she
Speaker 1: gathered while patients were alive, came together with the physical
Speaker 1: study of their heart after they had died over time.
Speaker 1: Based on all of this study, Tausig was able to
Speaker 1: develop diagnostic criteria for living patients. As this was happening,
Speaker 1: Dr Maud Abbott was also doing similar work at the
Speaker 1: McGill Medical Museum in Montreal. Abbott published her Atlas of
Speaker 1: Congenital Cardiac Disease in nineteen thirty six, which became an
Speaker 1: inspiration for Tausig's work. One of the conditions that Tausig
Speaker 1: saw over and over again was called tetrology of flo
Speaker 1: That was named for Tien Louis Arthur Fellow, who first
Speaker 1: described in a correctly working heart. Deoxygenated blood from the
Speaker 1: body enters the right atrium. The right atrium pumps it
Speaker 1: into the right ventricle. The right ventricle pumps that blood
Speaker 1: through the pulmonary valve and into the pulmonary artery, which
Speaker 1: goes to the lungs. And the lungs the blood picks
Speaker 1: up oxygen, leaves behind carbon dioxide, and then the oxygenated
Speaker 1: blood makes its way back into the heart through the
Speaker 1: left atrium. The left atrium pumps the blood down into
Speaker 1: the left ventricle, and then the left ventricle pumps the
Speaker 1: oxygenated blood out into the rest of the body through
Speaker 1: the a ORDA tetrology of Felow is a four part
Speaker 1: condition that affects this circulation in multiple ways. One, the
Speaker 1: valve between the heart and the pulmonary artery is too narrow,
Speaker 1: so there's less room for the deoxygen eated blood to
Speaker 1: move to the lungs. Two, because the right ventricle has
Speaker 1: to work a lot harder to pump blood through that
Speaker 1: narrow space, it's in large urged. Three. There is a
Speaker 1: hole between the two ventricles, so deoxygenated blood from the
Speaker 1: right ventricle and oxygenated blood from the left ventricle mixes
Speaker 1: together when it absolutely should not. Four. Rather than being
Speaker 1: attached to the left ventricle where it's supposed to be,
Speaker 1: the order is shifted over so it receives blood from
Speaker 1: both sides of the heart, with oxygen eated and deoxygenated
Speaker 1: blood mixed together. All this together means that the heart
Speaker 1: is having to work a lot harder and that the
Speaker 1: blood going out to the extremities doesn't carry as much
Speaker 1: oxygen as it should. That's a condition called anoxemia. Children
Speaker 1: with this condition often have bluish skin and mucous membranes,
Speaker 1: can't tolerate even mild exercize, and generally just don't really thrive.
Speaker 1: Before this surgical treatment was developed, about a quarter of
Speaker 1: the babies born with this condition died before their first birthday.
Speaker 1: Almost three quarters died before they were ten. Only about
Speaker 1: five lived past the age of forty, and because their
Speaker 1: tissues are being deprived of so much oxygen, a lot
Speaker 1: of those who did survive past infancy couldn't walk or
Speaker 1: stand on their own, and everyday tasks just required more
Speaker 1: oxygen than their bodies were getting. One of the things
Speaker 1: that Tausig discovered during her research was that some of
Speaker 1: her patients fared pretty well in their first days of life,
Speaker 1: but then suddenly got worse. She realized this shift came
Speaker 1: from the closure of their ductus arteriosis. For reference, in
Speaker 1: the womb, a fetus gets oxygen through the umbilical cord
Speaker 1: rather than by breathing. The ductus arteriosis is a vessel
Speaker 1: that lets circulating blood bypass the lungs, which at that
Speaker 1: point are filled with fluid. After a person is born
Speaker 1: and starts breathing on their own. The ductus arteriosis typically closes,
Speaker 1: and until it does, because of all the physiological changes
Speaker 1: going on after birth, some of the baby's blood uses
Speaker 1: it basically as a shortcut, allowing extra blood to travel
Speaker 1: to the lungs. Sometimes the ductus arteriosis doesn't close as
Speaker 1: it should, causing a condition called patent ductus arteriosis, and
Speaker 1: in a baby with an otherwise healthy functioning heart, this
Speaker 1: can cause a problem That vessel allows too much blood
Speaker 1: into the lungs. That puts more pressure on the heart,
Speaker 1: and it increases blood pressure within the pulmonary arteries. But
Speaker 1: Tossing found that in some babies with congenital heart conditions,
Speaker 1: patent ductus arteriosis actually helped that excess blood in the
Speaker 1: lungs was able to absorb a little more oxygen to
Speaker 1: distribute to the rest of the body. This was particularly
Speaker 1: true for children with tetrology of philo and other cyanotic conditions.
Speaker 1: This realization about the ductus arteriosis also connected to another
Speaker 1: conclusion that Tassing drew during this work. She realized that
Speaker 1: much of the time, congenital heart conditions weren't fatal because
Speaker 1: the person's heart failed. It was because their bodies just
Speaker 1: were not getting enough oxygen. And nine and thirty nine,
Speaker 1: Dr Robert Gross developed a surgical technique to close a
Speaker 1: patent ductus arteriosis. He did this work at Boston Children's
Speaker 1: Hospital in conjunction with a pediatrician named John Hubbard. They
Speaker 1: weren't actually the first ones to do this procedure though,
Speaker 1: that was Emil Carl Frey, who did it in Germany
Speaker 1: the year before. They were the first ones to publish
Speaker 1: their work, though. This gave Tassig an idea that if
Speaker 1: it was possible to close a patent ductus arteriosis that
Speaker 1: was harming a patient, it might also be possible to
Speaker 1: build one in a patient who needed it. This wouldn't
Speaker 1: cure the heart condition that was causing the patients cyanosis,
Speaker 1: but it could provide some relief of symptoms, both prolonging
Speaker 1: the patient's life and improving their quality of life. After
Speaker 1: hearing about Dr Gross's surgery, Tauson contacted him to find
Speaker 1: out whether he would be interested in trying to develop
Speaker 1: such a procedure. There isn't any correspondence that has survived
Speaker 1: from this exchange, so it's not hundred percent clear exactly
Speaker 1: when it happened, but Gross responded that he closed this ductus,
Speaker 1: he did not build new ones. Then, in nineteen forty one,
Speaker 1: Alfred Blaylock became surgeon in chief of Johns Hopkins, and
Speaker 1: he brought his surgical technician, Vivian Thomas with him. In
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, Tausig observed from the gallery as Blaylock
Speaker 1: closed a patent ductus arteriosis. Afterward, in her account, Tausig
Speaker 1: approached Blaylock and said, quote, I stand in awe and
Speaker 1: admiration of your surgical skill. But the really great day
Speaker 1: will come when you build a ductus for a child
Speaker 1: who is dying of anoxemia, and not when you tie
Speaker 1: off a ductus for a child who has a little
Speaker 1: too much blood going to his lungs. And Blaylock responded,
Speaker 1: when that day comes, this will seem like child's play.
Speaker 1: So we are going to talk about how Blaylock and
Speaker 1: Thomas developed the surgical procedure in our upcoming episode on
Speaker 1: Vivia Thomas. You will get back to tausig story after
Speaker 1: a sponsor break. Okay, Here's how surgical technician Vivian Thomas
Speaker 1: described Dr Helen Tausig's involvement in the surgery that he
Speaker 1: developed quote Helen passionately described her patients and their plight
Speaker 1: and that no known medical treatment existed. She went on
Speaker 1: to suggest that their only hope was a type of
Speaker 1: surgical approach to get more blood to the lungs as
Speaker 1: a plumber changes the pipes around. Dr Alfred Blaylock first
Speaker 1: performed that surgery to change the pipes around on November nine,
Speaker 1: and as we noted before the break, we will get
Speaker 1: into the specifics of the surgery and how it was
Speaker 1: developed in the episode on Vivian Thomas. As soon as
Speaker 1: it was clear that this surgery could allow children with
Speaker 1: cyanotic heart conditions to live a longer, healthier life, families
Speaker 1: rushed to Johns Hopkins for help. The earliest patients were
Speaker 1: all referred to Dr Blaylock by Dr Tausig, and for
Speaker 1: a time she was always in the operating room when
Speaker 1: the surgery was per formed. As time went on, she
Speaker 1: would join the team in the operating room for the
Speaker 1: surgeries that seemed most complicated or most likely to lead
Speaker 1: to complications. Both Blaylock and Tausig were part of the
Speaker 1: patient's ongoing follow up care. Their success also sparked a
Speaker 1: huge amount of interest in cardiovascular surgery in general, with
Speaker 1: all kinds of rapid developments following from there. Before this point,
Speaker 1: cardiac surgery is a field had barely existed. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: idea of operating on the heart at all was like
Speaker 1: really taboo. Tausig and Blaylock traveled around the United States
Speaker 1: and Europe to teach other doctors and surgeons about this procedure,
Speaker 1: which was soon being called the Blaylock Tausig operation. Tausig
Speaker 1: wrote of this as a moral obligation, that it was
Speaker 1: the duty of academic physicians to share knowledge anytime they
Speaker 1: discovered it. She also published the book Congenital Malformations of
Speaker 1: the Heart in ninety seven, and that was the first
Speaker 1: really comprehensive text book about congenital heart disease. Also in
Speaker 1: the late nineteen forties, doctor Richard J. Byng established a
Speaker 1: cardiac catheterization lab at Johns Hopkins. Cardiac catheterization involves threading
Speaker 1: a long, hollow tube through the blood vessels and into
Speaker 1: the heart to perform diagnostic or treatment procedures. Tausig, Bing
Speaker 1: and Blaylock used this lab to study tetrology of Felow
Speaker 1: as well as other congenital heart conditions. Publishing work on
Speaker 1: at least twenty different types. Because of her involvement in
Speaker 1: the development of what is now called the Blaylock Thomas
Speaker 1: Tausig shunt, Tausig was soon in demand as a teacher
Speaker 1: of other doctors in the newly established specialty of pediatric cardiology.
Speaker 1: Her pediatric cardiology fellows nicknamed themselves the Knights of Tausig,
Speaker 1: and Dr Tausig started arranging gatherings for them every couple
Speaker 1: of years at her vacation home on Cape cod. These
Speaker 1: gatherings were part reunion, part continuing education seminar so. In
Speaker 1: addition to her contributions to with surgery that saved the
Speaker 1: lives of thousands of babies and children during her career,
Speaker 1: Tausig also trained more than a hundred and thirty other
Speaker 1: pediatric cardiologists. In nineteen forty seven, Tausig was awarded the
Speaker 1: Chevalier de la legend It's, France's highest distinction. In nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty four, she, Alfred Blaylock, and Robert Gross were together
Speaker 1: awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Outstanding Contributions to Medicine.
Speaker 1: She and Blaylock were also nominated for the Nobel Prize
Speaker 1: in physiology or medicine. In nineteen fifty nine, Tausig became
Speaker 1: the second woman to become a full professor at Johns
Speaker 1: Hopkins School of Medicine. This was just four years before
Speaker 1: her retirement, so in the minds of a lot of observers,
Speaker 1: it was really long overdue for TAU six part. At
Speaker 1: one point, she wrote, quote, over the years, I've gotten
Speaker 1: recognition for what I did, but I didn't at the time.
Speaker 1: It hurt for a while. It hurt when Dr Blaylock
Speaker 1: was elected to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Speaker 1: and I didn't need and get promoted from assistant to
Speaker 1: associate professor. In January of nineteen sixty two, one of
Speaker 1: Tausig's former students wrote to her from Germany about the
Speaker 1: epidemic of congenital disorders and disabilities that had been caused
Speaker 1: by the sedative thelidamine. As you may recall, we did
Speaker 1: a two part podcast on this in August of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 1: At this point, the Litta mine had been pulled from
Speaker 1: the market or made prescription only in many countries, but
Speaker 1: drug company Meryl still had an application with the Food
Speaker 1: and Drug Administration for its approval in the United States,
Speaker 1: Tausig decided to travel to Europe herself to evaluate what
Speaker 1: was happening. She arrived in Germany on February one, nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty two, and she spent six weeks traveling to clinics
Speaker 1: in major cities, examining patients and interviewing their doctors and families,
Speaker 1: as well as visiting the headquarters of the drug manufacturers involved.
Speaker 1: And as she was doing this back in the United States,
Speaker 1: Francis Oldham Kelsey at the FDA was basically stalling the
Speaker 1: drugs application until Tausi could update her on what was happening.
Speaker 1: By the time Tausig got back to the US, Merrill
Speaker 1: had pulled its application, but investigations and hearings into what
Speaker 1: had happened we're still ongoing. Tausig testified before the American
Speaker 1: College of Physicians on April eleventh, nineteen sixty two, and
Speaker 1: before Congress on that year. She also became a huge
Speaker 1: part of the education campaign to make sure doctors were
Speaker 1: aware of the dangers of the litamide and to get
Speaker 1: people to check their medicine cabinets and dispose of any
Speaker 1: they might have on hand. Even though solidamide had never
Speaker 1: been approved for use in the United States, it had
Speaker 1: been distributed as samples, and in many cases those samples
Speaker 1: had not been documented or tracked in any way. People
Speaker 1: who traveled to or lived in other countries also brought
Speaker 1: the lidamide back to the US with them. As part
Speaker 1: of all of this, Tausig wrote numerous opinion pieces and
Speaker 1: articles for medical journals, including advocating for better testing procedures
Speaker 1: for drugs before they were for use. She was one
Speaker 1: of the big voices of trying to make sure people
Speaker 1: knew the dangers and acted appropriately to dispose of their medications.
Speaker 1: Although Tausig formally retired in nineteen sixty three, she kept
Speaker 1: up an almost full time patient load afterwards, saying quote,
Speaker 1: now that I'm retired, I'm much too busy to stop working,
Speaker 1: in addition to continuing to work as a pediatric cardiologist.
Speaker 1: In June of that year, she was the first recipient
Speaker 1: of a fellowship established by the National Foundation of the
Speaker 1: March of Dimes. She used the money from that fellowship
Speaker 1: to fund a follow up study of people who Alfred
Speaker 1: Blaylock had operated on between nineteen forty five and nineteen fifty.
Speaker 1: She ultimately tracked down seven hundred seventy nine former patients,
Speaker 1: and she found that more than eighty percent of them
Speaker 1: had good or excellent long term results from their surgeries.
Speaker 1: By the nineteen sixties, hearing aid technology had advanced to
Speaker 1: the point that Tausig had been using much smaller devices
Speaker 1: that mounted to the earpiece of her glasses, rather than
Speaker 1: something much larger that she carried around on her neck.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty three, she had a surgical procedure on
Speaker 1: the stapies of her left ear, which partially restored her
Speaker 1: hearing in that ear. She had the same procedure on
Speaker 1: her right ear in nineteen sixty four. Although this procedure
Speaker 1: had been available earlier than this, she hadn't really wanted
Speaker 1: to do it. She just didn't see the need for
Speaker 1: an elective procedure to address something that was not hampering
Speaker 1: her ability as a doctor. Tausig had become one of
Speaker 1: the six founding members of the Board of Pediatric Cardiology
Speaker 1: when it was founded in nineteen sixty one. In nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty four, President Lyndon Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal
Speaker 1: of Freedom. Her citation read quote physician, physiologist, and embryologist.
Speaker 1: Her fundamental concepts have made possible the modern surgery of
Speaker 1: the heart, which enables countless children to lead productive lives.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty five, she became the first woman to
Speaker 1: serve as president of the American Heart Association. On May
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy, the clinic at Johns Hopkins was renamed the
Speaker 1: Helen BA. Tausig Children's Pediatric Cardiac Center. On nineteen seventy six,
Speaker 1: Johns Hopkins University awarded her the Milton Stover Eisenhower Medal
Speaker 1: for Distinguished Service. On June nineteenth, ninety seven, she was
Speaker 1: awarded the Scientific Achievement Award from the American Medical Association.
Speaker 1: During her career, she was also awarded more than twenty
Speaker 1: honorary doctorate's. What she described as her highest award, though,
Speaker 1: was when parents of children she'd treated later named other
Speaker 1: children after her. Towards the end of her life, Tausig
Speaker 1: moved to a retirement community in Pennsylvania. She had never
Speaker 1: gotten married or had children, and she didn't want to
Speaker 1: become a burden to her friends and colleagues in Baltimore.
Speaker 1: As she aged, she kept spending her summers in Cape
Speaker 1: cod And to study hearts, including studying congenital heart conditions
Speaker 1: in birds towards the end of her life. That is fascinating. Uh.
Speaker 1: Doctor Ellent Tausig died in a car crash on six
Speaker 1: at the age of eighty seven. The Pediatric Cardiac Center
Speaker 1: at Johns Hopkins still bears her name now as the
Speaker 1: Blaylock Tausig Thomas Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center. So next
Speaker 1: time we will hear a little bit more about her
Speaker 1: when we talk about Vivian Thomas. But in the meantime,
Speaker 1: do you have a listener mail? I do. This is
Speaker 1: from Caroline. Caroline says, my name is Caroline and I
Speaker 1: live in Philadelphia, a longtime listener, first time writer. In
Speaker 1: the lead up to the federal election, the Mural Arts
Speaker 1: Program in Philadelphia has created a beautiful public art installation
Speaker 1: called to the Polls. One of the pieces is a
Speaker 1: painting of an altar honoring voting rights ancestors. I got
Speaker 1: very excited when I saw Nino tery Warren's name and
Speaker 1: knew who she was because of your podcast. I'm attaching
Speaker 1: a photo I took, although I am regretting not taking
Speaker 1: a closer picture of the bottom where the words are um.
Speaker 1: So what's on the bottom is in both English and
Speaker 1: Spanish and in English. Ship says, this altar is dedicated
Speaker 1: to our voting rights ancestors I W. Wells, Barnett, Mary Church, Terrell,
Speaker 1: Carrie Williams, Clifford, Nina, Ota Warren, Mabel Pingually, Mary, Louise Button,
Speaker 1: No Baldwin, Miguel Trichillo, Amzi Moore, Medgar Evers, and Alparez.
Speaker 1: Let's honor their legacy by exercising our right to vote.
Speaker 1: Vote for justice, vote for our collective liberation. This pieces
Speaker 1: by Candy Alexandra Gonzalez. You can see the rest of
Speaker 1: the paintings here. Caroline included a link to that. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for your episode on you know Teryl
Speaker 1: Warren made this already moving piece that much more meaningful.
Speaker 1: Thank you for all the times you have helped me
Speaker 1: learn about someone who made the world better in their
Speaker 1: lifetime but I never knew about. In this period of uncertainty,
Speaker 1: it helps to be reminded that history is made up
Speaker 1: of a lot of regular people like me who just
Speaker 1: chose to do the right thing. Wishing you and yours
Speaker 1: health and happiness, Caroline, Thanks so much. Caroline, thanks for
Speaker 1: the link to this. This collection of murals so um
Speaker 1: It's in Love Park in Philadelphia. It made me feel
Speaker 1: pretty wistful. Um. For a while, I was going to
Speaker 1: Philadelphia every November when um, like, my spouse would have
Speaker 1: a thing he was going to, and I would ride
Speaker 1: along and do whatever I wanted in Philadelphia the whole time. Um.
Speaker 1: I didn't go last year because we had just adopted
Speaker 1: to baby kittens and I wasn't ready to leave them
Speaker 1: with the pets that are yet. And we didn't go
Speaker 1: this year because everything is canceled because of the pandemic. Um.
Speaker 1: But I was like, man, I kind of wish I
Speaker 1: could just go to Philadelphia and walk around Love Park
Speaker 1: a little bit. Um. The murals are really really lovely. Um.
Speaker 1: We were recording this episode on election Day, and hopefully
Speaker 1: by the time this episode comes out, we will know
Speaker 1: what's happening, because I don't. You and I both lived
Speaker 1: through the two thousand election, which took a long time,
Speaker 1: sure did so fingers crossed. Fingers crossed, thank you, Caroline.
Speaker 1: Well we'll see. But yes, it's so cool that you
Speaker 1: know Tara warren Is is honored as part of that.
Speaker 1: I think it's fantastic. Yeah, so thank you again for
Speaker 1: sending that message. Caroline. Thank you to everybody who's been
Speaker 1: sending us nice email lately. If you would like to
Speaker 1: write to us about this or any other podcast or
Speaker 1: at history podcast at i heart radio dot com. And
Speaker 1: then we're all over social media at missed in History
Speaker 1: and that's where you'll find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, in Instagram.
Speaker 1: And you can subscribe to our show on the I
Speaker 1: heart radio app and Apple podcasts and anywhere else that
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class
Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts
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