| Summary: | <span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Garamond">This article tackles the lives of two people -Vivien T. Thomas, the American carpenter, and Hamilton Naki, the African gardener- who, living in hostile environments with few means and hounded by racial segregation, managed to achieve such success in the field of medicine that both contributed significantly to it, together with physicians as well known as Alfred Blalock and Christian Barnard. In due course, even though they had not managed to become physicians (as they had wished to be) both received honorary doctorates. They are revered in their respective countries of origin and were portrayed in the cinema: <em>Partners of the Heart</em> (2003) by Bill Duke and Andrea Kalin and <em>Something the Lord Made</em> (2004) by Joseph Sargent in the case of Vivien T. Thomas, while in the case of Hamilton Naki there is a documentary in project phase: <em>Hands of a Forgotten Hero</em>. These films could serve as examples for health students and professionals, in particular, and the public in general, and could serve as material for debate as regards their academic, ethical-moral and humanitarian aspects.</span>
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