Helen B. Taussig

Infobox Scientist
name = Helen Brooke Taussig
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caption = Helen Brooke Taussig
birth_date = May 24, 1898
birth_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts
death_date = May 20, 1986
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nationality = United States
ethnicity =
field = cardiology
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known_for = Blalock-Taussig shunt
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Helen Brooke Taussig (May 24, 1898 - May 20, 1986) was an American cardiologist, working in Baltimore and Boston, who founded the field of pediatric cardiology. Notably, she helped develop the Blalock-Taussig shunt in cooperation with Dr. Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas, to treat blue baby syndrome.

Background

Helen Taussig was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father was Harvard economist Frank W. Taussig, and her mother Edith was one of the first students at Radcliffe College. Her mother died when she was eleven. Helen struggled with severe dyslexia through her early school years, overcoming it only with diligent work and extensive tutoring from her father.

She graduated Cambridge School for Girls in 1917, then studied for two years at Radcliffe before earning a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1921. She then studied at both Harvard Medical School and Boston University before pursuing her postgraduate cardiac research at Johns Hopkins University.

She suffered from deafness throughout the latter part of her career, and learned to use lip-reading to listen to her patients, and her fingers in place of a stethoscope to feel the rhythm of their heartbeats.

Medicine

Taussig did extensive work on anoxemia, or blue baby syndrome, which led to the development of the pioneering infants surgery called the Blalock-Taussig shunt, first performed by Taussig and Dr. Alfred Blalock on an 11-month old baby girl on November 29,1944. Taussig wrote the book "Congenital Malformations of the Heart" in 1947, and received the 1954 Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research for her work. In 1959, she was one of the first women to be awarded a full professorship at Johns Hopkins University.

She was also one of the key doctors to advise the American Food and Drug Administration to prevent thalidomide from going to market in the United States, after studying European children born with phocomelia because of the improperly tested drug.

In 1964, Taussig received the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson, and in 1965 she became the first female president of the American Heart Association. Johns Hopkins University named the "Helen B. Taussig Children's Pediatric Cardiac Center" after her, and in 2005 the School of Medicine named one of its four colleges in her honor.

Films

In the 2004 HBO movie "Something the Lord Made", Dr. Taussig was portrayed by Mary Stuart Masterson.

References

*Citation
id = PMID:10323553
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10323553
last=Neill
first=C A
last2=Clark
first2=E B
publication-date=1999 Jan
year=1999
title=The Paediatric Cardiology Hall of Fame: Helen Brooke Taussig MD. May 24, 1898 to May 21, 1986.
volume=9
issue=1
periodical=Cardiology in the young
pages=104-8
*Citation
id = PMID:9294954
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9294954
last=Friedman
first=M
publication-date=1997 Sep
year=1997
title=Helen Brooke Taussig, M.D.: the original pediatric cardiologist.
volume=46
issue=8
periodical=Maryland medical journal (Baltimore, Md. : 1985)
pages=445-7
*Citation
id = PMID:8071766
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8071766
last=Neill
first=C A
publication-date=1994 Sep
year=1994
title=Helen Brooke Taussig.
volume=125
issue=3
periodical=J. Pediatr.
pages=499-502
*Citation
id = PMID:3305662
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3305662
last=McNamara
first=D G
last2=Manning
first2=J A
last3=Engle
first3=M A
last4=Whittemore
first4=R
publication-date=1987 Sep
year=1987
title=Helen Brooke Taussig: 1898 to 1986.
volume=10
issue=3
periodical=J. Am. Coll. Cardiol.
pages=662-71
*Citation
id = PMID:3546165
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3546165
last=Neill
first=C A
publication-date=1987 Feb
year=1987
title=Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig May 24, 1898--May 21, 1986. International cardiologist.
volume=14
issue=2
periodical=Int. J. Cardiol.
pages=255-61
*Citation
id = PMID:3544367
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3544367
last=Dietrich
first=H J
publication-date=1986 Dec
year=1986
title=Helen Brooke Taussig 1898-1986.
volume=8
issue=4
periodical=Transactions & studies of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia
pages=265-71
*Citation
id = PMID:3534805
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3534805
last=McNamara
first=D G
publication-date=1986
year=1986
title=Helen Brooke Taussig: 1898-1986.
volume=7
issue=1
periodical=Pediatr Cardiol
pages=1-2
*Citation
id = PMID:3891183
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3891183
last=Engle
first=M A
publication-date=1985 Jun
year=1985
title=Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig, living legend in cardiology.
volume=8
issue=6
periodical=Clinical cardiology
pages=372-4
*Citation
id = PMID:321852
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/321852
last=Harvey
first=A M
publication-date=1977 Apr
year=1977
title=Helen Brooke Taussig.
volume=140
issue=4
periodical=The Johns Hopkins medical journal
pages=137-41
*Citation
id = PMID:327568
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/327568
last=Schoenberg
first=D G
last2=Schoenberg
first2=B S
publication-date=1977 Jul
year=1977
title=Eponym: Helen Brooke Taussig: in the pink.
volume=70
issue=7
periodical=South. Med. J.
pages=862
*Citation
id = PMID:7050856
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7050856
last=Engle
first=M A
publication-date=1982 Jul
year=1982
title=Biographies of great American pediatricians--Helen Brooke Taussig: the mother of pediatric cardiology.
volume=11
issue=7
periodical=Pediatric annals
pages=629-31
* [http://www.africanamericans.com/HelenBrookeTaussig.htm Helen Brooke Taussig]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=10372821 Findagrave: Helen B. Taussig]