Something the Lord Made Page #2

See, conventional wisdom says

l should constrict the vessels.

l beg to differ. Let's break their rules.

Use my rules.

Body needs blood.

Let's give it some.

How's that gauge?

Still falling.

Maybe the experts are right.

Maybe l'm wrong.

Maybe l'll kill this boy

and break his mother's heart.

lt's rising.

That's life coming back.

-How's that make you feel?

-Good.

Very good, Doctor.

Let's look at the record of our work.

-Where's the smoke drum?

-l'm sorry?

The smoke drums.

-You didn't set the smoke drums?

-What is a smoke drum?

That's a smoke drum.

What the f*** is wrong with you?

l record all the information

l need for my research on a smoke drum.

l did not know that.

ls nobody listening to me?

God damn it!

l have to do everything myself.

A whole day's work goes down the toilet,

and l have to start all over again.

Do you have sawdust

or just plain sh*t for brains?

Where the hell do you think you're going?

Fine, get out of here.

Where the hell do you think you're going?

Fine, get out of here.

Vivien. Jesus.

-Hold on a minute, will you?

-l was not raised to take that type of talk.

My apologies. l'm sorry l lost my temper.

Normally it takes assistants months to learn

what you picked up in a matter of days.

lt won't happen again.

Please.

Ladies and gentlemen.

Fellows, take the music down, will you?

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.

l mentioned to Gen. Cunningham

the other day...

how proud we were that Al had chosen us...

over all the medical schools in the country.

John, why don't you tell everyone

what you said?

Be glad to, Walter.

l just got back from a month at the front.

There are thousands of our boys

in field hospitals...

all over North Africa and ltaly...

who owe their lives to Dr. Blalock's work

in the treatment of shock.

l want everyone here to know

how grateful we are to him...

and how proud you all should be.

Hear, hear.

-Dr. Blalock, welcome.

-Thank you.

Thanks, General.

lt's great to have you here, Al...

but truth be told, it's Mary we really want.

Our new Chairman

of the Department of Surgery...

my old and dear friend, Dr. Alfred Blalock.

Thank you, Walter.

Mary and l welcome you all to our home.

As do our dear children.

-Sadie, get them to bed, now.

-No!

Thank you, Johns Hopkins,

for my prodigal return...

after 15 years in the Tennessee backwoods.

To find myself back here.

Dreams do come true.

You're the best surgeons in the country

and l'm honored to lead you.

To use a timely reference:

''We'll storm the beaches together.

Shoulder to shoulder.''

Lay siege to the mysteries of medicine.

We'll make the kind of progress

Hopkins used to be known for.

l know we will accomplish

great things together.

l'm looking

for my next watershed discovery...

not to put too modest a point on it.

lt's not enough for us to be great surgeons.

We need to be outstanding researchers.

Any ideas? Anything innovative?

What about skin grafts?

Testing what skin grips might take.

-lsn't skin merely packaging?

-No, it keeps out infection.

Excuse me, Doctor,

may l suggest something?

Please do. l'm very suggestible.

Tell us your name again.

-l run the Harriet Lane Clinic for children.

-Dr. Taussig. Yes, of course.

Dr. Longmire, Dr. Kelven, Dr. Cooley.

l've read about your research.

-On congenitally malformed hearts.

-Yes.

Boy, women and their hearts.

Vivien, would you get Dr. Taussig a drink?

-What would you like?

-Champagne would be lovely.

Let's lubricate the vein of inspiration.

Go on, Dr. Taussig, tell us more.

lt's something that up to now

has been written off as untreatable.

But l don't believe it has to be.

l'm speaking of Tetralogy of Fallot.

Blue babies.

Yes, these children,

their hearts aren't failing...

they're suffocating due to a blockage

in the main artery to the lung.

Pulmonary stenosis.

The mortality rate is 100%.

l've watched

hundreds of cyanotic children die.

l admitted a baby tonight

who will certainly die...

simply because

no one has had the courage...

to attempt a surgical solution to this.

Maybe with good reason.

To put it mildly, you can't operate

on the heart. That's basic.

-We don't have clinical proof of that--

-My point exactly.

-lt's possible for us--

-Denton, you have to stop the heart...

to perform a complicated correction

within three minutes.

By that time, they're dead.

These children are doomed.

There must be a way

to get more blood to the lungs.

l mean, l doubt we could

repair a defect in the heart walls--

Without causing ventricular fibrillation.

But maybe there's a way to avoid interfering

with the greater circulation....

lf we focus on the pulmonary artery.

Who on this God's earth are you?

-Brought home some food from the party.

-l'm trying to get her down.

Hold on.

Okay, girl. Now go to sleep, baby.

The girls are just getting to bed?

2-ton neighbor upstairs

nearly burst through the boards.

-l'm gonna have to fix that.

-Are you gonna fix the fat man?

Get him to stop hollering his head off,

when the girls is trying to sleep?

Try a deviled egg. They're real good.

Seen better in Nashville.

l want to go home, Viv.

Clara, it's our first week.

Yeah, and you said

if we didn't like it, remember?

-Yes.

-Our family's in Nashville.

We had a nice home in a

good neighborhood. The schools were fine.

Not living in this....

l don't know how we're gonna make it

on that paycheck he's talking about...

and he got you serving drinks at his party

just to make ends meet. Come on.

Try to understand.

When l started at Vanderbilt...

-l was a janitor.

-l know.

Dr. Blalock saw what l could contribute,

and he gave me a chance.

And when they offered him

that big job in Detroit...

he didn't take it because they didn't take me.

Now l'm a lab assistant to a top surgeon...

at the number one medical school

in the country.

-lt's a good position.

-What about you going to medical school?

You don't have to remind me of that.

We have a family now.

Sweetheart, it's important work.

And it's a real opportunity,

and l love what l'm doing.

So it doesn't really matter

how l feel, then, does it?

Clara, you know it matters.

See that man?

That's Johns Hopkins himself.

Sir William Osler...

the father of modern American medicine.

William Halstead, invented the mastectomy.

Let me show you some of the others.

Excuse me.

All workers punch in at the rear entrance.

-He's with me.

-That don't make any difference.

-Do you know who l am?

-No, sir.

Dr. Blalock, Chief Surgical Professor.

l'm sorry, Dr. Blalock, but that's the rules.

l'll meet you in the labs, Vivien.

Hey, you need to punch in first.

Thank you.

l can see we've arrived.

When was the last time

they used this place?

Have someone clean it up

before they put the equipment in.

l'll meet you in an hour

at the Harriet Lane wards.

Let's see if there's anything

in this idea of Dr. Taussig's.

Excuse me?

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