File:Helen Brooke Taussig.jpg

Helen Brooke Taussig

Helen Brooke Taussig (1898 - 1986) was a paediatric cardiologist, who developed a surgical procedure for Tetralogy of Fallot^[1], also campaigned for blocking introduction of thalidomide into the U.S.A.^[2]One of her students had drawn her attention to the data on congenital malformations occurring in Germany and England.

"Taussig used fluoroscopy, a new x-ray technique, to establish that babies suffering from anoxemia had a leaking septum (the wall that separates the chambers of the heart), and an underdeveloped artery leading from the heart to the lungs. In 1941 Taussig suggested an idea for an operation that might help children with "blue baby" to her colleagues at Hopkins—surgeon Alfred Blalock and surgical technician Vivien Thomas. On November 9, 1944 Taussig and Blalock first performed this new operation on a child with anoxemia, (after Thomas had experimented extensively with the procedure). They later repeated it successfully on two more patients. They published their results in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The technique was named the Blalock-Taussig operation, and was soon used worldwide. Taussig continued her research on cardiac birth defects and published her important work Congenital Malformations of the Heart, in 1947." (excerpt from NLM biography)

Links: Tetralogy of Fallot | Abnormal Development - Thalidomide | NLM Biography

Search PubMed: Taussig HB (Author)

Reference

Copyright

National Library of Medicine. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_316.html

Cite this page: Hill, M.A. (2024, April 16) Embryology Helen Brooke Taussig.jpg. Retrieved from https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/File:Helen_Brooke_Taussig.jpg

What Links Here?

© Dr Mark Hill 2024, UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4 - UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G