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Breakthrough!

Jim Murphy

2015129 pagesabout 2–3 hours
2015
first published
  • 2015Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company · 129 pages · ENGISBN 9780547821832
  • 2015Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company · 144 pages · ENGISBN 9780547821887
  • 2019Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company · 144 pages · ENGISBN 9780358094258

In 1944 an unprecedented surgical procedure repaired the heart of a child with blue baby syndrome lack of blood oxygen caused by a congenital defect. This landmark operation opened the way for all types of open heart surgery.The team that developed it included a cardiologist and a surgeon, but most of the actual work was done by Vivien Thomas, an African American lab assistant who was frequently mistaken for a janitor.

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Written forMiddle grade

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