Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig is known as the founder of pediatric cardiology.  Taussig developed the first successful open-heart surgery technique in the 1940s on a 15-month-old baby as a way to treat what was known as “blue baby” syndrome.

In the 1940s, many babies born with heart conditions were sent home to die.  Taussig’s work in pediatrics pushed her to do more work to extend the lives of children born with Tetralogy of Fallot.  Taussig developed a procedure known as the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig procedure that saved lives.

Nowadays, the Blalock-Thomas-Taussig shunt is useful for prolonging life and improving health in infants before heart defects can be definitively repaired, commonly as the first stage of the three-step Norwood Procedure.  It allows infants to survive and gain weight before more complex surgeries are later attempted and is used in the care of patients with Tetralogy of Fallot, pulmonary atresia, and more rare and complex abnormalities.

After dealing with childhood illness, Taussig started to lose her hearing and was almost entirely deaf by the time she started practicing medicine. Because her hearing loss made it difficult to use a stethoscope, she developed a method of using her fingers to feel the rhythm of their heartbeats.  For these same reasons, Taussig pioneered the use of x-rays and fluoroscopy simultaneously to examine changes in a baby's heart and lungs in a less invasive manner.

In 1947, after a decade of gathering material, Taussig published her magnum opus, Congenital Malformations of the Heart, considered to be the foundational text of pediatric cardiology as an independent field. The book was expanded into two volumes for a second edition published in 1960.

Around 1960, there started to be a high number of babies born in Europe were born with a missing limb, something that appeared to be caused by mom’s use of thalidomide, a drug which was often taken by pregnant women to counter morning sickness.  When this drug was considered for distribution in the United States, Taussig traveled to Germany to examine these children for herself.  Coming to the conclusion that the drug taken during pregnancy was causing this, she launched a campaign to try to stop the pending approval of thalidomide by the FDA, speaking at the American College of Physicians, writing in journals and magazines, and testifying before Congress in 1967. As a result of Taussig and many others’ efforts, the drug was never distributed in the United States.

Taussig also was an advocate for legalized abortion, as well as the benefits of palliative care and hospice.

Taussig’s other accomplishments include:

• 1st woman (and pediatrician) to be elected head of the American Heart Association (AHA)
• 1st pediatrician to be elected head of the American Medical Association
• Honorary medal from the American College of Chest Physicians
• Gold Heart Award
• Presidential Medical of Freedom
• National Women's Hall of Fame induction
• Elizabeth Blackwell Medal from the American Medical Women's Association

Taussig also earned more than 20 honorary degrees and was a member of the American Pediatric Society, the Society for Pediatric Research, and the American College of Physicians.