Details

Release year: 2004

Storyline

A dramatization of the relationship between heart surgery pioneers Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas.

Top credits

Directors

Joseph Sargent

Writers

Cast

Cliff McMullen — Lodel Williams
Yasiin Bey — Vivien Thomas
Luray Cooper — Charles Manlove
Alan Rickman — Dr. Alfred Blalock

See all 122 credits →

Awards

3 wins & 6 nominations

See all awards →

Did you know

• According to a Johns Hopkins Medical Archives website about Blalock, Thomas, Taussig, and the Blue Baby surgeries, Eileen Saxon, the infant depicted in the movie as the first to undergo the procedure, became cyanotic again several months later. She died after another attempt at the surgery. Her experience helped the surgical team determine that the procedure worked best on patients who were over 3 years old.

• Based in part on the magazine article "Like Something The Lord Made" by Katie McCabe. It was published in the Washingtonian, and earned McCabe the 1990 National Magazine Feature Writing Award.

• Dr. Irving Sorkin, a retired dentist, was instrumental in getting Katie McCabe's article made into a feature film. Dr. Sorkin died of lymphoma on October 18, 2007, at the age of 88.