Betty Stephens
It all started when…
Betty was born in Tyler, Texas in 1935. At the age of 18, she moved to Portland, OR where she lived with her aunt and uncle and helped take care of their children while putting herself through school.
She spent most of her career working at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), formerly known as the University of Oregon Medical School (UOMS). In 1958, Dr. Albert Starr asked Betty to manage his cardiovascular research laboratory. During this time, she also worked as a scrub nurse for the open-heart surgery program at UOMS. Betty’s contributions in the research lab were instrumental in the development of the first Starr-Edwards mitral prosthetic caged ball valve, which was successfully implanted in a human patient on August 25, 1960.
In fact, the stories of Betty hand-sewing the sewing ring to valves after scrubbing in with the patient on the operating room table are true!
Betty received her perfusion on-the-job training (OJT) at the UOMS in Portland, OR 1960 - 1963 and was later certified by AmSECT, July 16, 1973. Betty was both the first female and the first African American, Chief of Perfusion in Oregon. She was also the first female African American Chief of Perfusion of a major cardiac surgery program in the US. She was also on the very first transplant team for the state of Oregon This was no small feat as this was still a very turbulent time in US history. De facto segregation still existed despite segregation being outlawed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Betty Stephens has a patent for the Heart defibrillator and the liver transplant pump.
Betty retired in early 2000 after devoting over 43 years of service to OHSU, first as a scrub nurse, and later as an perfusionist. Betty felt as if she had a unique perspective of cardiac surgery as both a perfusionist and as a mother of two children requiring repair of an atrial septal defect. In fact her oldest daughter was the 2000th open heart surgery performed by Dr. Starr.
During my visit with her, she relayed many great stories from her pioneering days. I asked if she ever felt discriminated against because of the color of her skin or gender. She emphatically said “no”, because she stood up for herself and demanded respect. If she was going to scrub for a surgeon known to raise his voice and cuss, she would tell him or her: “If you want me to scrub for you, please do not swear or scream at me. If you do, I’m going to walk right out of this room! I will not stand here and take that from anyone.” “Of course, I would not do this if there was a patient on the table because I had too much respect for those patients”. Betty’s courage is innate. She feels strongly that we have an obligation and a duty to stand up not only for ourselves, but for those who can’t fight for themselves. She was a patient and enthusiastic teacher to many nurses and perfusionists during her career, working side by side with the late Jeri Dobbs, a colleague and close friend.
Betty was very committed to women empowerment in her personal life. She has been a champion and advocate for African American women in her community. She volunteered with the National Council for Negro Women to help female inmates reintegrate into society. She helped educate young African American teenagers on the importance of “social graces” and proper manners. Growing up in the south, it was the church that played this role for Betty, and as such, it was important to her to pay it forward and mentor others.