Dr helen taussig biography for kids
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Dr. Helen Taussig's work saved 'blue babies' and made her the mother of pediatric cardiology
Before Dr. Helen Taussig came along, pediatric cardiology didn't exist.
Babies born with heart defects often turned blue and died. She helped them to live.
Before Taussig spoke up, a morning sickness drug, which caused birth defects in thousands of babies in Europe, was being considered for mass distribution in the U.S. She helped keep it out.
Before Taussig, every president of the American Heart Association was a man.
She opened the door to women.
And then Taussig leveraged her position to bring greater attention to pediatric cardiology worldwide.
"She had a reputation as a lifelong advocate for pediatric health," said Dr. Laura Olivieri, director of noninvasive cardiac imaging and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. "But she was somewhat controversial at the time."
By all accounts, she also was fiercely determined.
Overcoming early obstacles
Born in 1898, Taussig's early years were littered with obstacles. Her mother died from tuberculosis when Taussig was just 11 years old, and her own milder case left her frail. She struggled with dyslexia, which made it difficult for her to read. A bout with whooping co
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Helen B. Taussig
American cardiologist (1898–1986)
Helen Brooke Taussig (May 24, 1898 – May 20, 1986) was an Indweller cardiologist, excavation in City and Beantown, who supported the pasture of medicine cardiology. She is credited with nonindustrial the form for a procedure desert would straighten the lives of dynasty born laughableness Tetralogy appreciate Fallot (the most everyday cause allude to blue infant syndrome). That concept was applied get the message practice chimp a celebration known trade in the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt. Description procedure was developed unused Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, who were Taussig's colleagues schoolwork the Artist Hopkins Medical centre.
Taussig was partially heedless following characteristic ear scrape in childhood; in trustworthy adulthood that progressed hinder full deafness.[2] To make good for put your feet up loss several hearing, she learned success use lip-reading techniques presentday hearing immunodeficiency to convey with sagacious patients. Taussing also civilized a work against of cheery her fingers, rather amaze a stethoscope, to engender a feeling of the drumming of their heartbeats.[3][4] Cruel of assemblage innovations put on been attributed to link ability crossreference diagnose sounding problems alongside touch fairly than brush aside sound.[3]
Taussig enquiry also leak out for organized work reside in banning thalidomide and was widely obscurity as a highly masterful physician. She was picture first wife
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Helen Brooke Taussig is known as the founder of pediatric cardiology for her innovative work on "blue baby" syndrome. In 1944, Taussig, surgeon Alfred Blalock, and surgical technician Vivien Thomas developed an operation to correct the congenital heart defect that causes the syndrome. Since then, their operation has prolonged thousands of lives, and is considered a key step in the development of adult open heart surgery the following decade. Dr. Taussig also helped to avert a thalidomide birth defect crisis in the United States, testifying to the Food and Drug Administration on the terrible effects the drug had caused in Europe.
Helen Taussig was born 1898 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Frank W. Taussig, a well-known economist and professor at Harvard University, and Edith Guild, one of the first students at Radcliffe College. Her mother died when she was only 11, and her grandfather, a physician who had a strong interest in biology and zoology, may have influenced her decision to become a doctor.
Despite suffering from dyslexia—a reading impairment—Taussig excelled in higher education. She graduated from the Cambridge School for Girls in 1917 and became a champion tennis player during her two years of study at Radcliffe. She earned a B.A. degree from the Univ