Something the Lord Made

Thank you.

All right, everybody, that's it for the day.

Be sure you get that drop cloth up before you leave, all right?

-That's some nice work, young blood. -Thank you, Mr. Roulette.

Yeah, your daddy taught you right.

You know, when all the construction starts coming back...

you got skills to make something of yourself.

Thank you, sir.

That's fine. l can wait until payday.

l'm sorry, all the others have families to feed...

but you do good work.

-l like what you do, okay? -Okay.

You got a funny way of telling me that.

Morning.

-Didn't l tell you l could pull some strings? -Yes, you did, Charlie.

-Thank you, you're a good man. -Yeah.

But tell me why.... Morning.

Why would a doctor want to hire a carpenter?

Because it ain't nothing but scud work anyway.

You ain't gonna like it.

-You say the pay is $12 a week? -Yeah.

-l'm liking it already. -All right, then.

Dr. Blalock, this is Vivien Thomas.

Vivien? That's a girl's name.

Yes, my mother was so sure she was having a girl...

that she picked the name early, and kept it.

You don't say.

l'm pleased to meet you, sir.

Call me Doctor, and, Francis, you can tell this good doctor...

that his theories are extremely interesting, and l'll be praying for him.

Yes, Doctor.

Though it's his patients l should be praying for.

Keep up, son.

-This is where my work is done. -What is your work?

Medical research.

We push the limits of surgery...

using stray dogs we get from the local dog catch.

They're darling, but don't get too attached.

They're a means to a great end.

The dog pens get cleaned up twice a day.

l need the lab swept every morning.

Simple tasks, but they proved beyond the abilities of your predecessors.

Do you think you can handle it?

-So? -So what?

Don't ''so what'' me. Did you get it?

You got it. You must have got it.

-lt's working at a hospital, right? -Yeah.

l'm so glad. Everyone's gonna see how smart you are.

l don't know how smart you have to be to shovel.

The guy l'm working for, he seemed kind of eccentric...

but he is a doctor, yeah.

That's right, he is a doctor. So you just keep your eyes open.

-We can get married now. -Yeah.

Do everything just like we laid it out.

Doctor...

and Mrs. Thomas.

-Vivien. -Good morning, sir.

-You said you were a carpenter? -Yes.

-Did you go to high school? -Yes, l did. Got my diploma.

Planning on going to Tennessee State next year...

to study medicine, be a doctor.

Unusual ambition for a carpenter.

l always wanted to be one since l was a kid.

l almost saved up enough money for college...

and then slowdown hit.

Those are Van Slyke gas manometers over there.

So you can handle a saw?

-Yeah, since l was 12. -Do tell.

For cutting the lines, my father would measure on the lumber, sir.

Call me Doctor. So your daddy's a carpenter, too?

-What does he think of your ambition? -He's always known l had my mind set on it.

Those apparatus on the workbench, what are they called?

Van Slyke gas manometers, sir, Doctor.

They are, indeed.

Vanderbilt may be a Podunk institution, but l'm gonna put it on the medical map.

l'm working on traumatic shock.

Damn thing kills thousands of people every year...

and doctors don't know what the hell to do about it.

Let me see those hands.

Pick that up.

Now the left hand.

Good.

Excuse me, Vivien. Dr. Blalock wanted you to have this.

-Thank you. -Good night.

You know what my grandfather did?

lt doesn't have anything to do with me going out on strike.

l said, ''Do you know what my grandfather did?''

Yes.

He picked cotton in Mississippi, you told me a hundred times.

My grandfather was a piece of property.

No better than that chair or table over there.

His son became a free man at the age of 15.

He raised me with hardly an elementary school education.

Now l see my son graduate college and go on to teach school.

So don't tell me things don't get better over time.

Things don't just get better.

People got to change things, Pop, make them better.

lf l don't do something now, l'll be a dead man...

before l get paid like white teachers do.

Vivien, you know l'm right about this.

All right, now, Harold, just hold your head. l got reading to do.

To anesthetize Brutus, first we have to calculate the weight.

He weighs 18.4 kilograms.

And it should take 552 milligrams of sodium barbital...

to anesthetize him for three hours if the absorption rate is uniform.

Dogs? What kind of doctor is he?

Dogs? What kind of doctor is he?

When you practice on dogs, and then you can help heal people.

-Gives me the willies. -lt's not that bad.

l mean, you look inside, you see all the colors...

all the pinks and blues, reds.

lt's beautiful, Clara. That's where life comes from.

What's this?

What's this?

Open up.

Excuse me, sir. What's going on here?

The bank is closed.

-Closed? -Yup.

Open up.

-Open this door! -Somebody got to see somebody in there.

Open up, it's 10:00. l got to get to work.

Let's go, Vivien, we'll come back later.

No, Clara, something's wrong. lt can't be closed.

Excuse me.

Excuse me, sir. Hello.

Get away from that window, we're closed.

But l have my money in there.

-l need to get my money out. -l can't get your money back for you.

-Why not? Tell me why not. -Go on home, son. The bank has failed.

Sir, that's all my savings.

l had my money for school in there. They got my money in there.

-Sir, that's my money for college. -Your money's gone.

Gone?

-But what are they talking about? -They talking about, it's gone, Ma.

We'll all just have to start over.

-Can't fight it now, it's done. -lt just feels so wrong.

Took me seven years to save that money.

You're not the only one who had money in that bank.

lt's done, it's over with!

We still got each other, Viv.

Yeah, we got each other.

That's all poor people ever have is each other.

There's no cut down the cannula, the femoral vein.

l showed you how to do it.

l figured out a way to give it barbital intravenously.

-Where you putting it? -ln the forepaw.

The manometer.

lt's all set up, Doctor.

Good.

-You can begin the incision. -l'm not ready for that.

l say you're ready, you're ready.

l'll mark out the line. And you cut along it.

Just like you did for your old daddy.

Like this?

Just like that. Keep your hand taut.

Why are we making the incision here?

-To gain access to the pulmonary artery. -And how will we find it, Vivien?

lt's the artery leading to the lungs from the right side of the heart.

Not bad.

Now the rib spreader.

And why are we gonna damage poor Brutus' greater vessels?

To induce traumatic shock, to study it.

Watch this manometer.

And imagine that Brutus is a 16-year-old boy...

just fell out of a tree saving his mom's cat.

He's broken four ribs, he's concussed.

Dad's rushed him to ER.

But he's gone into shock. His blood pressure's way down.

His vital signs almost nonexistent.

Can we save him?

Not if l use present methods of treatment.

See, conventional wisdom says l should constrict the vessels.

l beg to differ. Let's break their rules.

Use my rules.

Body needs blood.

Let's give it some.

How's that gauge?

Still falling.

Maybe the experts are right. Maybe l'm wrong.

Maybe l'll kill this boy and break his mother's heart.

lt's rising.

That's life coming back.

-How's that make you feel? -Good.

Very good, Doctor.

Let's look at the record of our work.

-Where's the smoke drum? -l'm sorry?

The smoke drums.

-You didn't set the smoke drums? -What is a smoke drum?

That's a smoke drum. What the fuck is wrong with you?

l record all the information l need for my research on a smoke drum.

l did not know that.

ls nobody listening to me?

God damn it!

l have to do everything myself.

A whole day's work goes down the toilet, and l have to start all over again.

Do you have sawdust or just plain shit for brains?

Where the hell do you think you're going? Fine, get out of here.

Where the hell do you think you're going? Fine, get out of here.

Vivien. Jesus.

-Hold on a minute, will you? -l was not raised to take that type of talk.