Helen Brooke Taussig - Mt. Auburn Cemetery - Watertown, MA - Grave of a Famous Person on Waymarking.com

In Watertown, within Mt. Auburn Cemetery, is this marker for Helen Brooke Taussig, who pioneered pediatric cardiology and a recipient of this country's Medal of Freedom.

Helen Taussig was born to noted economist, Frank Taussig, and Edit Guild, one of the first students at Radcliffe College (now part of Harvard). She had some challenges: she had severe dyslexia, which she overcame with tutoring and hard work. She also had significant hearing loss by the time she finished medical school, which she had to find ways to adapt to it. For instance, she used her fingers to hear the heartbeat instead of a stethoscope. She started studying medicine at Harvard Medical School and Boston University, but graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1927. In 1930, she was appointed head of the Children's Heart Clinic at the Johns Hopkins Hospital pediatric unit, where she stayed until her retirement in 1963.

In 1944, she and colleagues, surgeon Alfred Blalock and surgical technician Vivian Thomas, performed a new operation to correct a congenitive heart condition named Anoxema or "Blue Baby" syndrome. The results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the technique was named the Blalock-Taussig operation and became widely used worldwide. Also, in 1954, she received the Lasker Award for this pioneering work. She also became one of the first female professors at Johns Hopkins. In 1965, she was elected President of the American Heart Association. In 1963, she received the 1963 Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women (AAUW). In 1964, Taussig received the Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson.

Other Sources:

AAUW.org (Couldn't Hear a Heartbeat):
(visit link)

Description: Helen Taussig was a leader in pediatric cardiology and a pioneer female in the medical field, becoming one of the first female professors at Johns Hopkins. She received the Medal of Freedom from President Johnson. Date of birth: 05/24/1898 Date of death: 05/20/1986 Area of notoriety: Medicine Marker Type: Headstone Setting: Outdoor Visiting Hours/Restrictions: Daylight hours every day Fee required?: No Web site: [Web Link]

Visit Instructions:
To post a visit log for waymarks in this category, you must have personally visited the waymark location. When logging your visit, please provide a note describing your visit experience, along with any additional information about the waymark or the surrounding area that you think others may find interesting.

We especially encourage you to include any pictures that you took during your visit to the waymark. However, only respectful photographs are allowed. Logs which include photographs representing any form of disrespectful behavior (including those showing personal items placed on or near the grave location) will be subject to deletion.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.