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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Something the Lord Made

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?