The 1940s Medicine and Health: Headline Makers

Alfred Blalock (1899–1964) Surgeon Alfred Blalock, along with Helen Taussig, developed the operation that saved blue babies, or babies suffering from cyanosis, a bluish coloration of the skin resulting from incomplete oxygenation of the blood. The procedure was tested on some two hundred dogs before it was performed on a baby, which occurred in 1944. Although the first baby died nine days after surgery, a success rate of 80 percent in his first 65 operations was a great success.

Charles R. Drew (1904–1950) Charles R. Drew earned degrees from Amherst College in Massachusetts and McGill Medical College in Montreal, Canada. In 1939, Drew began researching blood plasma while working at Howard University. His efforts solved many problems of blood storage and made large-scale blood transfusion programs possible. He headed the American Red Cross's "Blood For Britain" campaign during 1941. Drew's research saved many lives during World War II (1939–45). Yet as an African American, he often suffered discrimination. His enemies believed that his position at the American Red Cross was too high for a black man.

Elizabeth Kenny (1886–1952) Elizabeth Kenny was a nurse in the Australian bush when she began to treat victims of polio. She tried to stop the disease from paralyzing leg and arm muscles by massaging them and encouraging exercise. She arrived in Minneapolis in 1940, but the medical profession had difficulty accepting her methods. At the time, polio victims were strapped into braces and metal frames. Kenny argued that this allowed healthy nerves and muscles to weaken. By 1950, her methods of rehabilitation were an accepted part of the treatment for polio and other muscle-wasting diseases.

Mary Lasker (1900–1994) Mary Lasker was the founder of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation. The foundation promotes the belief that scientific investigation and a fundamental understanding of human biology and disease processes are key to reducing human suffering from disease. The Foundation was established in 1942 with a mission that was novel at the time: to encourage federal financial support for biomedical research in the United States. The belief was that the foundation should provide seed money for research projects, then stimulate the federal government to continue the efforts. The foundation also created a venue for educating the public about the many benefits of research for human health.

William Claire Menninger (1899–1966) At a time when psychiatry (the treatment of mental health problems) was not taken seriously in the United States, William Claire Menninger worked hard to improve the treatment of the mentally ill. He persuaded the army to take better care of its mentally injured soldiers, and he improved psychiatry after the war. Menniger's great triumph was persuading doctors and the public that mental problems could be treated. He received the Albert Lasker Award in 1944 for "outstanding service in the field of mental hygiene."

B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) Behavioral psychology explains that all learning and behavior are a direct result of external stimulation. For B. F. Skinner, "human nature" did not exist. Instead, he believed that human behavior could be influenced and changed. Always a controversial figure, Skinner was criticized for taking away free will. But his techniques have found great success in anti-addiction clinics. By the late 1940s, he had become one of the most influential American psychologists.

Henry Stack Sullivan (1892–1949) Henry Stack Sullivan believed that personality disorders are caused by the relationship between the patient and the environment. Mental illness, he thought, was a problem-solving technique used by the mind to deal with difficult situations. Working as medical adviser to the War Department, Sullivan helped raise the profile of mental health treatment in the army as well as in civilian medicine. In particular, he persuaded the medical profession that schizophrenia was a curable condition. Rather than just trying to understand the problem, Sullivan made the therapist an important part of the patient's recovery.