Business Corpus: Dr. Helen Taussig Beat The Odds To Become A Giant In Pediatric CardiologyJohns Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig broke barriers and defied conventional wisdom to pursue her goal of helping patients who lacked medical treatment options. A pioneer and innovator, Taussig... Read More The post Dr. Helen Taussig Beat The Odds To Become A Giant In Pediatric Cardiology appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.

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Johns Hopkins cardiologist Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig broke barriers and defied conventional wisdom to pursue her goal of helping patients who lacked medical treatment options.

A pioneer and innovator, Taussig (1898-1986) founded the field of pediatric cardiology. She tread on new territory to devise breakthroughs in diagnosing and treating children with congenital heart disease. Among her many achievements, Taussig helped develop the groundbreaking surgical procedure known as the "blue baby" operation.

Taussig was determined to challenge the status quo. She overcame personal and professional obstacles, including an initial rejection to medical school due to gender discrimination and hearing loss. And she drew strength from her struggle.

Passion also motivated Taussig. She was in constant pursuit to fill the void of what was missing in pediatric care.

"To be a leader, you have to recognize where the gaps are," Dr. Anne Murphy, pediatric cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, told IBD. "She recognized there was a gap in caring for these patients with heart defects that caused them to be blue due to low oxygen in the arteries. And she made the effort to work with others to make a difference. She inspired the people she trained to do the same and make a difference."

In so doing, Taussig left an indelible mark on the field of medicine.

"Her fundamental concepts have made possible the modern surgery of the heart which enables countless children to lead productive lives," reads the inscription on the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor, presented to Taussig in 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Followed Her Passion

Taussig never relented in her quest to find solutions.

"She was passionate about her patients," Murphy said. "To be able to look your patient in the eye and say, 'A few years ago, we didn't have anything we could do for you, but now we're looking toward a different future,' is what I think motivated her, from everything I heard from people who worked with her directly. That's what drove her."

Taussig studied afflictions that had no medical remedies. This focus led to breakthroughs. Taussig co-developed the blue baby operation performed in 1944 with Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock and his surgical technician, Vivien Thomas.

"It is very much believed she was a wonderful, gentle person," said Murphy, who worked with many of Taussig's colleagues in the 1950s. "But to survive in the academic environment in those days and to get things to move forward, she had to be tough, in my opinion. She really believed she had to offer help to blue babies, who had no other options. She really wanted to be able to offer some hope and to move the field forward."

Taussig received her medical degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1927. The journey that led to her concept for the blue baby operation started in 1930. That's when Taussig accepted an offer by Johns Hopkins Chief of Pediatrics Dr. Edwards Park to head Hopkins' new pediatric cardiology heart clinic.

Dr. Park, who was an academic mentor for Taussig, urged her to use the clinic's radiographic equipment to study congenital heart disease, wrote Murphy in a paper she co-authored with pediatric cardiologist Dr. Kathryn Neubauer entitled "Helen Brooke Taussig: Pediatric Cardiology Leader and Innovator."

Taussig soon developed an interest in congenital heart disease and the "blue babies" seen at the clinic. She became unstoppable in pursuing a course that transformed the care of children with congenital heart disease. Taussig laid the foundation for today's heart surgery.

Pioneered New Approaches

In the late 1930s and early 1940s, there was no way to treat congenital heart disease. There were no surgeries, and the diagnostic tools were minimal.

But Taussig challenged proven science and experimented in unknown territory. Taussig's study of afflictions that had no medical remedies led to breakthroughs.

"Part of (Taussig's) work was to try to characterize how children with heart defects presented themselves through clinical manifestations," Murphy said. "The way it's been described to me talking to her colleagues is she recognized that blue babies had heart defects in which there was decreased blood flow to the lungs. She reasoned that if there was a way to produce more blood flow to the lungs, this would help these children who were blue."

Then Taussig worked on a way to produce more blood flow to the lungs of these children.

Murphy says Dr. Robert Gross was the first to do a surgery where there was an artery that remained open after birth and caused babies to breathe more quickly and not grow as well.

"He figured out you could ligate (close off) this artery," Murphy said.

After learning of Dr. Gross' surgery, Taussig thought that "diverting an artery to supply more blood to the lungs might help her patients who were cyanotic because of reduced lung blood flow," according to Murphy.

"Taussig proposed her idea to Dr. Gross, who said he was not interested in her idea," according to Murphy's co-authored paper.

She Persisted

Taussig wouldn't accept defeat. She pushed forward. She took her idea to Johns Hopkins surgeon Dr. Alfred Blalock, who was receptive to the idea.

"There was a very nice collaboration between Dr. Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who was known as a brilliant technician, to develop this procedure before the approach was used to treat a child," Murphy said.

The historic surgery was performed on an infant on Nov. 29, 1944.

"The infant survived to go home from the hospital, but died at a second surgery a few months later," according to Murphy's co-authored paper.

After two more successful surgeries were performed, Taussig and Blalock published their work, "The Surgical Treatment of Malformations of the Heart" in May 1945.

Dr. James Moller, pediatric cardiologist at University of Minnesota Medical Center, describes the procedure this way: "They took a major blood vessel that went to the arm and divided it and turned it down and hooked it into the blood vessel going into the lungs," he told IBD. "And children flocked to Hopkins to get this done."

Added Murphy: "The success of this technique came from moving forward with it in patients, which was an incredible feat. Any surgery performed on a child in the 1940s was a drastic procedure. The surgery involved a large incision in the chest of these very little babies, who were extremely ill."

Taussig founded the field of pediatric cardiology by challenging the status quo.

"Taussig is recognized as the founder of pediatric cardiology because of her ability to characterize and understand the heart defects in patients, who were living, while in the past they had been described using an autopsy," Murphy said. "She began to understand it in terms of patients she was caring for in her clinic. That was her legacy."

Another reason Taussig is considered the founder of pediatric cardiology: "She was the first person in the world to have a precise interest in children with heart disease," said Moller. "She was dedicated to studying congenital heart disease in children."

Paved A Way

Taussig developed a teaching regime at Johns Hopkins and drew people from all over the world to train, Murphy says.

"She really trained the first generation of pediatric cardiologists," she said.

Taussig also published in 1947 the first textbook exclusively on congenital heart defects: "Congenital Malformations of the Heart."

This textbook continued to be the bible of pediatric cardiology for decades, according to Murphy's co-authored paper.

Taussig was born in Cambridge, Mass. Her father was a well-known professor at Harvard. Her mother studied biology at Radcliffe College. She died when Taussig was only 11.

Success did not come easy for Taussig, starting with an early childhood handicap of dyslexia, causing her "difficulty with reading comprehension throughout school," according to Murphy's co-authored paper.

Her father helped her with her reading and homework, the paper says.

Taussig started at Radcliffe College and then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, where she received her A.B. degree in 1921. Then she started to think about a medical career. She met with the dean of the Harvard School of Public Health to discuss her career only to learn Harvard would allow women to attend medical classes, but would not admit women as degree candidates at the time.

As Taussig became more interested in pursuing a career as a doctor, she realized Harvard wasn't the place for her. She decided to go to Boston University, where women were welcome to take pre-med courses and earn credit for them, the paper says.

Paid It Forward

After completing her pre-med requirements at Boston University, she went to medical school at Johns Hopkins University, which has had a policy to admit women and men equally since its founding.

"She clearly did what the founders wanted, which is to move forward not just in patient care and academics, but in moving medicine toward the future," Murphy said.

For Taussig that meant "moving toward the future of heart surgery in general and for children with birth defects in particular," Murphy said.

But Taussig faced many other obstacles along the way. She also had to overcome hearing loss, which she developed early on as director of the pediatric cardiology clinic. This caused problems using the stethoscope. She tried hearing aids and other methods to overcome the problem.

"None if these worked as well as when she learned to 'listen' with her hands, a talent she perfected over the years by laying her hands extremely gently over a child's chest, feeling murmurs other physicians could not hear with a stethoscope," according to Murphy's co-authored paper.

Legacy

While Taussig is best known for co-developing the blue baby operation, she made many contributions to general pediatrics, pediatric cardiology and medical education.

In 1962 she traveled to Germany to investigate claims that Thalidomide was causing birth defects. The drug had been prescribed as a sleeping aid. The drug was taken off the market in Europe.

Taussig's reports to the medical profession in the U.S. and her testimony before Congress were key in blocking FDA approval for Thalidomide's use in the U.S.

Taussig's career in medicine spanned a lifetime. She remained the head of the Harriet Lane Cardiac Clinic until 1963. She also served on the faculty of the school of medicine from 1930 until 1963, when she became professor emeritus.

Taussig was killed in an automobile accident at age 87.