It has been over 60 years since my brother died. Born May 8, 1928, Edward L. Mitchell lived only 21 years and passed away one morning in our home, having failed to regain strength despite two groundbreaking operations performed by a brilliant surgeon.

In 2004, after several years in preparation, HBO aired a new docudrama/biopic, Something the Lord Made, about the very same man who tried to save my brother’s life.

Alfred Blalock, M.D. (1899-1964) and Vivien Thomas (1910-1985), his laboratory assistant, were medical researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Md. Dr. Blalock had become known worldwide in vascular (heart) surgery, and many parents brought their babies from around the world for the “blue baby” surgery.

As the movie synopsis states: Something the Lord Made tells of the emotional true story of two men who defied the rules of their time to launch a medical revolution, set against the backdrop of the Jim Crowe South. Working in 1940’s Baltimore on an unprecedented technique for performing heart surgery on “blue babies,” Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and lab technician Vivien Thomas (Mos Def, The Italian Job) form an impressive team. But even as they race against time to save a dying baby, the two occupy very different places in society. Blalock is the wealthy white Head of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital; and Thomas is black and poor, a skilled carpenter. As Blalock and Thomas invent a new field of medicine, saving thousands of lives in the process, social pressures threaten to undermine their collaboration and tear their friendship apart.”

Seeing this movie brought back memories to me. My brother was diagnosed early with Banti’s disease, a rare, chronic and congestive condition that leads to the enlargement of the spleen and subsequent premature destruction of red blood cells. He had episodes over a period of 11 years that required hospitalization and over 100 blood transfusions.

Between hospitalizations, he looked healthy and would not seem to have a serious problem. When an episode occurred, perhaps once or twice a year, it would be necessary for him to have blood transfusions. Blood banks were not available. Consequently, relatives, friends, and acquaintances in the greater Pittsburgh area, with the specific blood type needed, were called upon, sometimes in the middle of the night, to give blood. For example, during one hospitalization in 1938, he was given 20 transfusions in 48 days.

In the fall of 1948 our family moved to Beaver Falls, Pa., and was worshiping at the Geneva RP Church. Janet Metheny Downie, a member of the church, personally knew Katharine Borkovich, M.D., a 1935 graduate of Geneva College. Dr. Borkovich was a professor on the medical staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital, She connected my brother with Dr. Alfred Blalock, who also operated on adults.

Dr. Borkovich outlined the problems associated with getting Ed in to see Dr. Blalock: “We do not at the present time have any research money for patients with [Edward’s] condition. We could, however, have him admitted on the Ward service, and the cost per week of hospitalization would be between $80 and $100.”

That amount might not sound like much, but it is the present day equivalent of roughly $700-$900 per week.

Because of frequent prolonged hospitalizations and because of my family’s church connections, it was only natural that friends and relatives were prayerfully supportive and helpful in many ways. When it became known that an initiative was being investigated for Dr. Blalock’s consultation and possible operations, the pocketbooks of many people were opened, and many dollars were received, not only from individuals, but also from two congregational treasuries.

In a letter, Dr. Borkovich writes to begin arrangements to bring Ed to Johns Hopkins to see Dr. Blalock: “I have spoken to the Medical Admitting Officer regarding Edward and if he is interested in coming I shall arrange for it beforehand so that admission will be possible.…If the family is willing to have him come to our hospital, will you please let me know as soon as they make that decision so that I can make definite arrangements for his admission.”

After consultations with Dr. Alfred Blalock, it was my brother’s decision to proceed with experimental surgery, which resulted in two operations. During the months of April through June 1949 Ed was hospitalized at Johns Hopkins.

A sudden turn for the worse occurred in May 1949. A telegram was sent to the RPCNA Synod, meeting at Winona Lake, Ind., requesting prayer. This was very much on the minds and hearts of Synod, which frequently and fervently included brother Ed’s situation in prayer times.

My brother’s fiancée, who visited him one weekend in Baltimore in the summer of 1949, gives this eyewitness account of the famous Dr. Blalock:

While I was in the cafeteria one day in Johns Hopkins Hospital, I had been talking with Dr. Blalock. An Indian woman (dressed in her native clothes) came up to Dr. Blalock and dropped to her knees in front of him and began to kiss his hands, saying over and over, “Thank you. Thank you!” Apparently, the procedure cured her son. He raised her up and said to her, “I am only an instrument in God’s hands.” I don’t remember his exact words, but it was something like that. The woman had tears running down her face—it was a very moving experience for me, too!

After his surgeries Edward was sent home to recover, but Dr. Blalock did not forget him. In my files is a letter written and signed by the doctor himself, to my parents, giving encouragement after Ed’s release from Johns Hopkins. Addressing my mother, on July 23, 1949, he said: “Thank you ever so much for your very nice letter about Edward. He was so sick following his operation that it will undoubtedly take him a long while to gain a great deal of strength. I believe, however, that he will do this. I believe that with Edward’s fight and with your faith that he will ultimately make it.”

He further sent his good wishes and advised Ed to eat well.

But it was not to be. Ed had difficulty regaining his strength and suffered from an accumulation of fluids. He also had to receive more transfusions. An article published that fall in the Covenanter Witness gives insight into Ed’s state of mind near the end of his life. While [Edward] thought of the ministry as his life work, yet his education as a student at Geneva College was interrupted by returns to the hospital….At the opening of the fall term at Geneva College, Edward was distressed that he was too weak to enroll once more. But that week, God called him into a higher learning, where the perfection of God’s ways are fully revealed, and where His scholars praise Him for evermore, saying, “The ways of the Lord are right.”

Ed died on Sept. 16 after lingering for four months. A roommate of my brother at Johns Hopkins had the same condition and the same surgery, but was cured.

There was a large outpouring of condolences when Ed died, and the Allegheny RP Church was filled beyond capacity for his funeral. The service was conducted by Pastor Kermit S. Edgar, Dr. D. H. Elliott, Dr. John Coleman, and Dr. J. B. Willson. Ed’s body was interred in Beaver Falls Cemetery the next day.

My mother felt that Dr. Blalock was a very compassionate and caring physician, and he demonstrated this again and again. Upon hearing about Ed’s death, the doctor who tried to save his life wrote, offering condolences on Sept. 27, 1949: “I am so sorry to hear that Eddie passed away. He was such a nice young man and we were so anxious to help him. I am sorry that we failed. He made many friends here, and I imagine that he made friends wherever he was. Please accept our deepest sympathy in this great loss.”

After seeing the movie, I was disillusioned, since the film conveys a different personality of Dr. Blalock than I saw evidenced. In the comments on the DVD section, it was noted that the writer and director tried to balance his explosive personality with his compassion.

I recommend this movie because of the true story. I suggest also viewing the comments segment of the DVD, which describes the many years of careful research and planning to write the script, interviews of both the Blalock and Thomas families, meticulous attention to details in filming, and restructuring and selecting sequences of the movie. Ed’s death notice, which ran in the Covenanter Witness that fall, concludes with this statement:

The apostle Peter placed suffering in a new light when he wrote: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” Edward’s was a character perfected through suffering. His cheerful endurance of suffering and disappointment for Christ’s sake, bore a testimony far beyond his few years. Surely, “for him to live was Christ,” and therefore, “to die was gain.” He was faithful unto death, and on the basis of God’s Word he is now enjoying “the crown of life.”

—John Mitchell is associate professor emeritus of business at Geneva College. He is clerk of session of Rose Point (New Castle, Pa.) RPC and a volunteer archivist for the RPCNA archives.