Vivien Thomas dreamed of going to college and becoming a doctor. But when the stock market crashed in 1929, he lost all the money he had saved. Then he heard about a job at Vanderbilt University’s medical school, working for Dr. Alfred Blalock. Vivien knew the all‑white school wouldn’t let him be a student, but he hoped that working there might bring him closer to his dream.

As Dr. Blalock’s research assistant, Vivien learned how to do delicate surgical work. In 1943, Dr. Helen Taussig asked for help finding a way to save children born with a serious heart problem. Vivien spent months experimenting and finally created a new procedure that made the first successful open‑heart surgery on a child possible.

Later, Dr. Blalock and Dr. Taussig announced their new technique, called the Blalock‑Taussig shunt. But Vivien’s name wasn’t included, even though his work made the surgery possible.