Largely unknown to the general public today, Dr. Helen Brooke Taussig became internationally recognized by the medical world for transforming the lives of children in her care. As a physician at Johns Hopkins, she became a leading expert on diagnosing heart defects.

Author and journalist Patricia Meisol writes about Taussig in a new book, A Heart Afire: Helen Brooke Taussig’s Battle Against Heart Defects, Unsafe Drugs, and Injustice in Medicine. The story spotlights this pioneering doctor who revolutionized care for children with heart problems and lead the charge against birth defect causing drugs.