Vivien Thomas (1910-1985) overcame many challenges, including poverty, racism and the lack of a college education, to become a cardiac surgery pioneer who trained a generation of surgical residents in his Johns Hopkins surgical lab. Thomas is best known for his role in developing a groundbreaking surgical technique to correct a potentially fatal birth defect known as Tetralogy of Fallot, that resulted in oxygen-poor blood leaving the heart, which is also known as blue baby syndrome.