Something The Lord Made
Something the Lord Made is a true story of two men who, Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who work together to develop a heart surgery to save their patients suffering from Blue Baby Syndrome. Their 34-year partnership develops through the depression era in Nashville where Blalock is a white surgeon, head of surgery at the John Hopkins Hospital, and Thomas is a poor, black carpenter with a dream of going to college and medical school. Blalock originally hires Thomas as an assistant in his lab, but discovers his talent in medicine and develops into Blalock’s research partner.
Blalock praises Thomas’ surgical skill and has Thomas coach him through the first Blue Baby surgery despite protests from Hopkins' administrators and other surgeons. The two men remain separated outside their medical partnership due to race, where Thomas has to fight for a wage higher than a janitor’s and is not invited to recognition of their groundbreaking work by the medical community. Thomas remained unknown until after Blalock’s death in 1985 when he was granted an honorary doctorate by John Hopkins' for many notable accomplishments throughout his career.
This was an incredibly touching story that I found to be both inspiring and frustrating. Blalock received international recognition while Thomas worked long hours in the lab to perfect the surgery and to earn just enough to provide for his family. It was interesting to see how long it took the American culture to accept a black man in a position of importance in medicine. I was impressed with how modest Thomas was. Even when Thomas stood up for himself, he was well spoken and said just enough to make his point. Blalock demanded respect and authority from the medical community, where it took the community decades to give that respect to Thomas, who in some ways deserved much more. I highly recommend this movie, as it demonstrates the segregation and limitations imposed in some fields. It is also inspirational to those who still are making advances in their fields despite social constraints.
Comments
That was a very interesting post. It is really sad that people have not been given credit for their hard work in the past because they are members of oppressed groups. The way in which Thomas did not receive praise for his hard work reminds me of the story of Rosalind Franklin. She did a lot of the work that led to the discovery of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Because she was a woman however, her accomplishments were not acknowledged, and the Watson and Crick duo received credit for much of the work that she did. It is just another story of how people have been disenfranchised because of their lower status in the hierarchy of Race Class and Gender!
Posted by: Stephen Andersson | February 16, 2007 5:32 PM
I think this movie focused on explaining the story of a guy who dreamed of being equal and having the opportunity to save lives. After the Blalock, head of John Hopkins Hospital discovered that Thomas, the janitor, had the unique skills, he trains him to work on a Blue Baby Syndrome, where later on they became partners. Yet, the partnership was only valid inside the hospital do to the race of Thomas. Mr. Thomas was black guy, and because of his race he was not ‘good enough’ to be a doctor. Now, one wonders, how could people prevent the ‘great mind’ from getting to the top; the only thing I could come up with was jealousy and hate toward one race. On the other hand, I wonder what the scenario would be if the white guy was a janitor, and had the same dreams and the same skills as Thomas? Would the white guy have so much trouble and be paid so low doing the same job as Thomas was doing?
Posted by: Fahrudin | February 18, 2007 3:09 PM
This was a very good movie two thumbs up
Posted by: lachele Corbin | February 1, 2009 3:27 PM