Dr. Wayne Wilkins to Lead Discussion in Medicine and Movies Series

12:00AM / Tuesday, November 01, 2005Print Story | Email Story

Williamstown - Williamstown resident Dr. Wayne Wilkins '41 will lead a discussion on the film â€œSomething the Lord Made,â€ as part of the Medicine and the Movies Series at Williams College on Tuesday, Nov. 8, in Griffin Hall, room 6 at 7:30 p.m. The film documents the development of the first operative procedure on a congenital heart abnormality and tells the legendary story of two men - a determined white surgeon, Alfred Blalock, and a talented black carpenter turned lab technician, Vivien Thomas â€“ who defied racial restrictions and pioneered the medical field of heart surgery at John Hopkins Hospital in 1944. The duoâ€™s patients are known as â€œblue babiesâ€ â€“infants who suffer from a congenital heart defect that turns them blue as they slowly suffocate. J. Alex Haller, professor emeritus of pediatric surgery at the School of Medicine at Johns Hopkins, who trained under Blalock and Thomas in the 1950s, was a primary consultant on the film. â€œA touching moment for me came when they operated on the first blue baby," he said. "As they operated and new blood began to flow into the infantâ€™s heart, they took off the sheets and you saw the childâ€™s color change from blue to pink - a miracle." Directed by Emmy winner Joseph Argent, the HBO film stars Alan Rickman (Blalock), Mos Def (Thomas) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Helen Taussing) along with Kyra Sedwick, Gabrielle Union and Charles S. Dutton. After the film, Dr. Wilkins will conduct a discussion about the key doctors and the history and the science of heart surgery.

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

Save & Earn with Greylock

3.30% APY 6-month certificate. Click to learn more! Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

North Adams Officials to Revote School Committee Members

Staff reports06:31PM / Friday, October 09, 2026

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — City and school officials will meet a second time to vote in two new members of the School Committee.

The joint convention of the City Council and School Committee will be held on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the City Hall conference room and via Zoom.

Damon Grimes and Paul Moriarty were jointly elected on Monday to fill two seats vacated by resignation. They were two of four candidates standing for election.

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, chair of the School Committee, said she had received in inquiry about the votes, which were done by secret ballot.

"I have been advised that voting by ballot was not permissible in this circumstance," she said, after consulting the School Committee's attorney Adam Dupere and city solicitor KP Law.

To ensure the validity of the votes and conduct of the election, the joint convention will reconvene and formally confirm the selection of Grimes and Moriarty.

"I apologize for the inconvenience of having to reconvene," the mayor said in a statement. "My intention in using a ballot was to address concerns raised following our previous convention, when some members expressed discomfort with publicly voting for or against individual candidates.

View Full Story