Interesting…

I’ve previously written about our baby girl’s middle name and the irony behind it, however, I’ve discovered a bit more interesting news regarding one of the doctors that helped save her life. Mel and I decided on Mary Clare’s middle name long before we knew much about her medical procedures and definitely long before we realized that her middle name was also apart of the name of the shunt within her tiny heart that saved her life, the BT shunt.

Dr. Alfred Blalock was a pioneer in the BT-shunt procedure named after him, the Blalock-Taussig. (The first of Mary Clare’s surgeries that inserted a shunt to allow her to live until her second corrective heart surgery. The shunt was removed during the second surgery.) By the way, if you haven’t read before, Mary Clare’s middle name is Blaylock. Spelled differently and after Mel’s great aunt, but pronounced the same!

Lately, I’ve been reading a blog titled, “Adventures of a Funky Heart” by an adult survivor of a CHD. I think the writer is also from SC! Today is a post on the first procedure done by Dr. Blalock and contemplates animal research. I also discovered that Dr. Blalock worked and researched at Johns Hopkins, where my great grandad and grandad studied surgery and medicine. In fact, the dog named Anna, that survived the very first BT shunt procedure became the mascot of the Johns Hopkins Surgical Lab and lived there until her death in 1957. She even had her portrait hung in the Hospital. I just wonder if my grandfather knew of Anna? So many people and animals to be thankful for!

Check out the blog…Adventures of a Funky Heart. Very interesting!!

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