Vivien Thomas was described as “the most untalked-about, unappreciated, unknown giant in the African American community” by one of his colleagues, Dr. Levi Watkins, an African American surgeon who performed the first human implant of an automatic defibrillator. Though he never attended medical school, Thomas still managed to make an enormous contribution to surgical sciences. Banished to the back halls of the hospital during the height of segregation, his accomplishments were overshadowed by the great Drs. Blalock and Taussig. But make no mistake – this unsung hero was also one of the greats in medicine.
