In 1944, Alfred Blalock, Helen Taussig, and Vivien Thomas revolutionized surgical treatment of the heart and nearby blood vessels—through an improbable partnership among a white male surgeon, a white female physician, and an African-American male laboratory technician. Separately, each of these individuals was brilliant. Blalock discovered the cause and best treatment of the deadly medical condition called shock, which can occur after severe injury or loss of blood. Taussig essentially founded pediatric cardiology, the medical subspecialty dealing with children's heart ailments. And Thomas was an inventor and, to those who knew him, close to a surgical genius. It was the combination of their skills, however, that made medical history.