For 30 points Extra Credit, answer these questions on on a sheet of paper.
1. Give one reason why Mr.
Thomas operated on the hearts of dogs in Dr. Blalock's research laboratory when
he was preparing for the blue baby operations.
2. How did Mr. Thomas lose
his college savings?
3. Why was it difficult for
Vivien Thomas to get a job once he had decided that he was not going to be able
to go to college?
4. Was Dr. Blalock a racist
or a man who did as much as he could to help Vivien Thomas have a fulfilling
career? Explain.
5. What role did racism play
in the fact that Dr. Blalock was able to keep Vivien Thomas as a lab assistant
for so many decades and benefit from Thomas' work without giving him credit?
6. Leaving aside the question
of whether Dr. Blalock should have encouraged Mr. Thomas to attend college and
become a surgeon, describe why the Blalock/Thomas team is an example of
effective teamwork.
7. Did Dr. Blalock act in a
caring manner toward Mr. Thomas? Give examples to support your answer.
8. Why did Vivien Thomas
cause such a controversy when he went out of the lab in his white lab coat?
9. It is said that Vivien
Thomas opened new paths to healing when most doors were closed to him. What is
meant by that?
10. Dr. Levi Watkins, one of
the first black graduates of the Johns Hopkins surgery program said this about
Vivien Thomas: "I think he is the most untalked about, unappreciated,
unknown giant in the African American community. What he helped facilitate
impacted people all over the world." Given the fact that Vivien Thomas
never participated in a demonstration demanding civil rights or filed a law
suit to enforce his rights, what did Dr. Watkins mean?
11. Was the first blue baby
operation an experiment, as the Priest charged?
12. After Dr. Blalock and Dr.
Taussig took full credit for the operation and didn't given Mr. Thomas any
credit, the character of Vivien Thomas in the movie says to Blalock: "I'm
invisible to the world. I don't mind that. I understand that. I thought it was
different in here." What did he mean?
13. At the end of the film,
Dr. Blalock says to Mr. Thomas, "They say you haven't lived unless you
have a lot to regret. I regret .... I have some regrets. But I think we should
remember not what we lost but what we've done ... all the lives we saved and we
did. We saved plenty didn't we Vivien?" What do you think that Blalock was
talking about?
