5. Helen Taussig
Hellen Taussig was deaf, severely dyslexic and faced gender discrimination, but she didn’t let that stop her and her amazing work. In 1927, she got her medical degree from John Hopkins and made groundbreaking discoveries in the field of pediatric cardiology. She discovered the cause of a birth defect known as “blue baby syndrome,” which has a high mortality rate for infants. After developing the procedure to fix it, she worked with her colleagues at John Hopkins, working on a now-successful technique that has saved thousands of babies. She continued research until the day she passed away at 87 years old.
