Helen Brooke Taussig: A Heart of Gold, Compassion & Resilience
by
Marie-Kim Gosselin
7 October 2019
I.
Introduction
​
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the life and career of the remarkable and dedicated
physician Helen Brooke Taussig, as well as her impact on modern medicine. The text will
explore her contributions to the field of pediatric cardiology in regards to congenital
malformations of the heart, as well as her findings on the perilous effects of thalidomide on
infants when mothers would consume the immunomodulatory drug during their pregnancy.
II.
Her Childhood
Helen Brooke Taussig was born on May 24, 1898, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She was
the daughter of Edith Thomas Guild, one of the first female students at Radcliffe College in
Boston, and well known Harvard Professor of Economics, Frank William Taussig, and she
had three older siblings. The Taussig children were born into a family who sought success
and highly valued the importance of education.
Helen was a victim of multiple diseases in her childhood. Due to pertussis, a highly
bacterial disease, she suffered permanent hearing impairment. She also suffered from mild
mediastinal tuberculosis for a couple of years, causing her not to attend school whilst she was
ill. Unfortunately, her mother passed away due to that same disease when Helen was only
eleven years old (Goodman, ​A Gentle Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig​, p.2).
Helen was also facing another major obstacle, but this one stuck with her throughout the
entirety of her life. She had dyslexia, making it extremely difficult for her to read, write and
learn. Her father was by her side through it all, being as patient as needed to help her improve
her reading skills.
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III.
Her Education
In 1917, Helen began studying at Radcliffe College. She did not enjoy her time at the
College and asked for her father’s permission to attend the University of Berkeley instead. He
insisted that she studied one last year at Radcliffe before transferring to the university of her
choice, and she did just that. Helen obtained her Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree in May 1921.
After graduating from Berkeley, Helen decided that she wanted to study medicine. She
wanted to enroll in the Harvard Medical School, but at that time, she could only be permitted,
but she would ultimately not be obtaining a degree because she was a woman. As resilient as
ever, she was exceptionally permitted to study histology. Her professor at the time, Dr.
Bremmer, encouraged Helen to transfer to Boston University to study anatomy instead of
wasting her time at Harvard.
Helen transferred to the Medical School at Boston University, where she studied
anatomy, pharmacology, and physiology. Dean of the Medical School and Professor of
Anatomy, Dr. Alexander Briggs, was extremely impressed with Helen’s work, so much that
he told her to request a letter of recommendation from the Professor of Physiology at
Harvard, Dr. Walter Cannon, for her to apply to Johns Hopkins Medical School. Helen was
introduced to the Class of 1923 at Johns Hopkins Medical School, and finally, Helen was
able to obtain her long-awaited Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) in 1927.
IV.
Her Work & Legacy
After she graduated, Dr. Edwards A. Park encouraged Dr. Taussig to accept his one-year
fellowship in his clinic, and she gratefully accepted his offer. She continued with her research
and work on the physiology of the heart. In 1932, Dr. Park offered yet another position to Dr.
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Taussig, this time to be the physician-in-charge of the cardiac clinic at Johns Hopkins. She
then began to study congenital malformations, as demanded by Dr. Park. Dr. Taussig started
her research on Rheumatic fever amongst children, on which she had observed and
documented over a hundred separate cases over the next two years.
In 1933, Dr. Taussig began to observe a pattern amongst the hearts of cyanotic infants;
Their right ventricle seemed to be non-existent. She discussed the case with her colleagues
and they concluded: “that the baby had pulmonary atresia and a patent ductus because there
was no right ventricle and no place for the pulmonary artery to arise” (Goodman, ​A Gentle
Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig,​ p.18). This was the first breakthrough into understanding
blue baby syndrome, caused by a cyanotic heart defect, in which deoxygenated blood enters
the cardiovascular system. She then began to think of a solution for this defect, and soon
after, she had thought of a new concept; “If a surgeon can ligate a patent ductus, why can’t
they build a patent ductus -- that would help the cyanotic child” (Goodman, ​A Gentle Heart:
the Life of Helen Taussig​, p.25-26). Dr. Taussig explained her idea to the surgeon Dr. Alfred
Blalock, who found her idea fascinating and decided to work with her to make this surgery
possible, along with the help of his assistant, Vivien Thomas.
The surgeon’s assistant proceeded to perform the surgery on dogs, trying to see if it was
successful and if the complications that Dr. Blalock feared were dangerous. Vivien Thomas
tested on hundreds of dogs and concluded that the surgeon’s doubts were not going to be a
problem.
On November 9, 1944, Dr. Blalock, alongside other medical professionals, Vivien
Thomas, and Dr. Taussig, proceeded with the first surgery on a young infant whose only
chance of surviving was this new surgery. Although difficult, the surgery was successful and
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the baby, Eileen, survived the initial procedure. The team later successfully operated on two
other children over the next several months.
The revolutionary surgery, which they named ‘The Blalock-Taussig Shunt’, was
published in The ​Journal of the American Medical Association, in ​1945. Soon after the
publication, children from all over the world were being told to see the two doctors at Johns
Hopkins Hospital. The hospital began offering cardiovascular surgery and pediatric
cardiology training programs as well. Doctors were desperate to study by Dr. Taussig’s side
and start fellowships with her. By 1974, she had trained over seventy-seven doctors
(Goodman, ​A Gentle Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig​, p.52). She never lost touch with her
students and fellows, as she would organize a reunion with them every two years, in which
they all took turns sharing their new experiences.
In 1962, Dr. Taussig flew to Germany to investigate the outbreak of phocomelia, a
condition that involves the malformations of the limbs amongst infants, that was thought to
be caused by the mother consuming a drug called Contergan, otherwise known as
thalidomide, during the pregnancy. She visited many hospitals during her six weeks stay to
examine the children with the condition. After her investigation and research, Dr. Taussig
was certain that this correlation was, in fact, correct, and returned to America with intent to
help Dr. Kelsey, who had been trying to convince the F.D.A. that thalidomide had perilous
effects, spread the word about the drug’s heinous effects to the medical community. She
testified before the Kefauver Committee in Congress about her findings involving
thalidomide, as well as in favour of the legalization of abortion laws (Goodman, ​A Gentle
Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig,​ p.75-77).
In 1965, Dr. Taussig was elected as the president ​of The American Heart Association in
honour of her contribution to the field of cardiology, making her the first woman to be at this
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position. She ​took her retirement from Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1963, but she did not stop
being curious, as she continued with research on topics she was fascinated by. “Now that I’ve
retired, I’m much too busy to stop working” once said the dedicated physician (Goodman, ​
A
Gentle Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig​, p.82).
V.
Relationship to the Hippocratic School of Medicine
Dr. Taussig perfectly represents the values of the Hippocratic School of Medicine, as she
prioritized her patients’ well being and sought a cure and an answer for any of their illnesses.
Also, she used documentation and observation to perfect her research, showed compassion
for her patients and fellows, focused on prognosis, making sure to follow up with them
afterwards. Dr. Taussig persevered through all the obstacles in her life, showing dedication
and motivation for working her field as she made medicine her life’s purpose. She will be
remembered as being a woman who was “warm, thoughtful, concerned, caring and rightfully
deserving of the honours she received… As a doctor, she made outstanding contributions to
the world” (Goodman, ​A Gentle Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig,​ p.86-87).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig’s lifelong research, inspiring teachings, and her
work as a physician massively heightened the medical world’s knowledge on pediatric
cardiology, consequently making her known as one of the founders of said field of medicine.
Therefore, her contributions to modern-day medical practice as we know it as well as the
values of compassion, dedication, and selflessness she portrayed throughout her life and
career demonstrates how ​the role of the legacy of Hippocrates is still relevant in the medical
community during modern times.
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Works Cited
1. “Changing the Face of Medicine | Helen Brooke Taussig.” U.S. National Library of
Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 3 June 2015,
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_316.html​.
2. Goodman, Gerri Lynn. ​A Gentle Heart: the Life of Helen Taussig.​ Yale University,
1983.
3. Taussig, Helen B. “The Development of the Blalock-Taussig Operation and Its
Results Twenty Years Later.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society,
vol. 120, no. 1, 1976, pp. 13–20. JSTOR, ​www.jstor.org/stable/986348​.
4. Taussig, Helen B. “The Thalidomide Syndrome.” Scientific American, vol. 207, no.
2, 1962, pp. 29–35., ​www.jstor.org/stable/24936633​.
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