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"After the surgery, when the nurse brought my mother in to see me, she exclaimed, 'Here is your 'pink' Toni!.'"
Submitted by: Antonia Meixner
I was a "blue baby", born in 1952 with the heart condition of "Tetrology of Fallot", the defect which was the subject of Blalock and Thomas work. My mother had often told me how I used to have "blue spells", and how each time it happened, she was frightened I was going to die. She told me how purple my lips always were, how I used to squat, as the children in the film did, so I could feel better, how others warned her that I probably would not survive beyond 4 or 5 years old. In 1955, I was operated on in Children's Hospital, Los Angeles. After the surgery, when the nurse brought my mother in to see me, she exclaimed, "Here is your 'pink' Toni!" I am now 52, have two grown children, and last month, hiked to the top of Yosemite Falls - the highest waterfall in North America. Last night my family and I watched your movie. Thank you for the very moving story of a very, very personal hero of mine. My family will be forever grateful for the work that these men did.
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