I have uncovered men who perished in war and have been long forgotten by all but their families. Along with his lab assistant, Vivien Thomas, and pediatric cardiologist Helen Taussig, he developed and perfected the Blalock — Thomas — Taussig shunt. Blalock and his team performed the operation on thousands of children and marked the beginning of the modern era of cardiac surgery. Thousands of both children and adults have been able to live healthy productive lives because of the efforts of Dr. Blalock. Quite honestly, I think I was looking at GMC athletes when I quite accidentally discovered Dr. Blalock.