The retirement years of Doctor Helen B. Taussig: an intersection of art and medicine

Abstract

Abstract Dr Helen B. Taussig (1898–1986) worked a paediatric cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland from 1930 to 1963. Dr Taussig would become world-renowned for her contributions to the systemic-to-pulmonary artery shunt to treat congenital heart patients with cyanosis. This shunt would eventually be named after the surgeon/cardiologist as the Blalock–Taussig shunt. Dr Taussig’s name was also attached to the description of one form of double outlet right ventricle called the Taussig-Bing malformation. Dr Taussig ultimately received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 as a testimony to her life-long contributions to the field of congenital heart surgery. In 1963, Dr Taussig retired from clinical practice but continued her teaching and academic pursuits at Johns Hopkins for another 14 years. Upon her “second retirement” in 1977, she moved to Kennett Square, PA. This paper will review the retirement years of Dr Helen Taussig and the curious intersection between art and medicine.