Having learned about Thomas on the day of his death, Washingtonian writer Katie McCabe brought his story to public attention in a 1989 article entitled "Like Something the Lord Made", which won the 1990 National Magazine Award for Feature Writing and inspired the PBS documentary Partners of the Heart,[4] which was broadcast in 2003 on PBS's American Experience and won the Erik Barnouw Award for Best History Documentary in 2004 from the Organization of American Historians.[57] McCabe's article, brought to Hollywood by Washington, D.C., dentist Irving Sorkin,[58] formed the basis for the Emmy- and Peabody Award–winning 2004 HBO film Something the Lord Made.
Thomas' legacy as an educator and scientist continued with the institution of the Vivien Thomas Young Investigator Awards, given by the Council on Cardiovascular Surgery and Anesthesiology beginning in 1996. In 1993, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation instituted the Vivien Thomas Scholarship for Medical Science and Research, sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. In fall 2004, the Baltimore City Public School System opened the Vivien T. Thomas Medical Arts Academy. In the halls of the school hangs a replica of Thomas' portrait commissioned by his surgeon-trainees in 1969.[53] The Journal of Surgical Case Reports announced in January 2010 that its annual prizes for the best case report written by a doctor and best case report written by a medical student would be named after Thomas.[59]
Vanderbilt University Medical Center created the Vivien T. Thomas Award for Excellence in Clinical Research, recognizing excellence in conducting clinical research.[60] The award is named The Vivian T. Thomas award for Excellence in Clinical Research, not the "Vivian A. Thomas" award as cited from a June 20, 2019, article from the VUMC Reporter.
Schematic representation of the Blalock–Thomas–Taussig anastomosis between the right subclavian artery and right pulmonary artery. A / initial anastomosis – B / modified anastomosis.
Without any education past high school, Thomas rose above poverty and racism to become a cardiac surgery pioneer and a teacher of operative techniques to many of the country's most prominent surgeons.
Alfred Blalock (1899-1964), a cardiologist (therefore, self-confident to the point of arrogance), leaves Vanderbilt for Johns Hopkins taking with him his lab technician, Vivien Thomas (1910-1985). Thomas, an African-American without a college degree, is a gifted mechanic and tool-maker with hands splendidly adept at surgery. In 1941, Blalock and Thomas take on the challenge of blue babies and invent bypass surgery. After trials on dogs, their first patient is baby Eileen, sure to die without the surgery. In defiance of custom and Jim Crow, Blalock brings Thomas into the surgery to advise him, but when Life Magazine and kudos come, Thomas is excluded. Will he receive his due?
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in Blalock's experimental animal laboratory at 
