The most inspiring movie I have seen this year is Something the Lord Made - the amazing true story of Vivian Thomas, an African American carpenter turned prolific inventor in the field of medicine. He was the innovative genius who discovered the techniques and invented tools to perform the first ever heart surgery. He never went to medical school. This is a moving story of creativity, passion, invention, intuition, collaboration, and emerging a new paradigm.
Fired from his carpentry job, yet interested in medicine, he went to work with Dr. Alfred Blalock at Jones Hopkins University in the 1930s and 40s. It became apparent Vivian was a creative genius. His passion, inventiveness and perseverance against many personal and societal setbacks became the driving force of discovery that led to the first heart surgery - something that was believed impossible at the time
Together Vivian and Dr. Blalock were trying to figure out how to solve some of the challenges posed by working on the "blue babies" – babies who were not getting the proper circulation through their heart and therefore had a blue tint. There was no cure at that time and these babies died within months.
Vivian’s successful methods were a result of research and extensive experimentation, combined with vision, exploration, making previously unforeseen connections, and intuition – in a dream, Vivian saw their first patient as a grown up, but with a baby’s heart. She was holding held her baby heart in her hands and she died. He woke up knowing that to ensure the success of the surgery, they must use sutures that grew along with the baby into adulthood, and therefore the heart could grow into its adult size.
Vivian was there, guiding Dr. Blalock and their team of surgeons through the surgery. It worked and the surgical team was esteemed worldwide. All except for Vivian. The brains behind it all, he was not acknowledged by Dr. Blalock nor the rest of the team in the media frenzy. Feeling betrayed, Vivian quit and went into pharmaceutical sales. After time away, he realized his heart was in the lab, furthering the advancement of medicine.
He swallowed his pride and faced the man whom he felt betrayed him, asking him of he could come back to the lab. Dr. Blalock replied, "I am still the same arrogant bastard who was here before." And Vivian then said the words most demonstrative of the way those who are responsible for the innovative advances that expand what's possible: "It is not about you. It is about the work" - and he went back to work.
Vivian went on to earn an honorary doctorate Johns Hopkins years later, and his picture hangs in their walls to this day, next to Alfred Blalock's. Before Vivian, it was understood in the medical establishment to not touch the heart during surgery. He not only invented a life-saving procedure, he helped change a paradigm.