Something the Lord Made

I haven’t seen the film, but have heard about it from several people over the last couple of months. So why am I writing about it? The film tells the story of Vivien Thomas (a black cardiac research assistant) and Alfred Blalock (The “Blue Baby Doctor”), the two men largely responsible for pioneering the usage of what is now called the Blalock-Taussig Shunt (BT shunt for short) to treat “Blue Babies”. It explores the nature of their research and relationship in the peculiar times before the advancements of the Civil Rights movement. Since the main part of Gracie’s surgery was the installation of a BT shunt, I thought some of you might be interested in knowing about it. Whatever you do, don’t tell me about it because a year from now I might want to watch it.