Dr. Michael DeBakey, medical pioneer, dead at 99

[ultrafilter]

From Wikipedia. This guy’s list of accomplishments is incredible; in short, if it’s related to heart surgery, he invented it and performed it on thousands of people. From the previously linked article:

At age 23, while still in medical school at Tulane University, DeBakey invented the roller pump, the significance of which was not realized until 20 years later, when it became an essential component of the heart-lung machine.[10] The pump provided a continuous flow of blood during operations. This, in turn, made open-heart surgery possible.

With his mentor, Alton Ochsner, he postulated in 1939 a strong link between smoking and carcinoma of the lung. DeBakey was one of the first to perform coronary artery bypass surgery, and in 1953 he performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy. A pioneer in the development of an artificial heart, DeBakey was the first to use a external heart pump successfully in a patient — a left ventricular bypass pump.

DeBakey pioneered the use of Dacron grafts to replace or repair blood vessels. In 1958, to counteract narrowing of an artery caused by an endarterectomy, DeBakey performed the first successful patch-graft angioplasty. This procedure involved patching the slit in the artery from an endarterectomy with a Dacron or vein graft. The patch widened the artery so that when it closed, the channel of the artery returned to normal size. The DeBakey artificial graft is now used around the world to replace or repair blood vessels.

In the 1960s, DeBakey and his team of surgeons were among the first to record surgeries on film. A camera operator would lie prone atop a surgical film stand made to Dr. DeBakey’s specifications and record a surgeon’s eye view of the operating area. The camera and lights were positioned within three to four feet of the operative field, yet did not interfere with the surgical team.[10] DeBakey worked together with Dr. Denton Cooley, while they both practiced at Baylor College of Medicine. According to the April 18, 1969 issue of Life magazine, they had a disagreement associated with Cooley’s apparently unauthorized implantation of the first artificial heart in a human. The disagreement turned into a bitter feud that lasted for decades;[11] the two men reconciled only in 2007,[12] but DeBakey made it public by inviting Cooley to the presentation of the Congressional Gold Medal.[13] Debakey was a perfectionist and intolerant of incompetence, and was known to be brutal to surgical trainees and co-workers[14] and would fire surgical assistants who made minor errors.[15].

To the amazement of his colleagues and patients, DeBakey continued to practice medicine into an age well after most others have retired. DeBakey practiced medicine until the day he died, and nearly reached 100 years of age in 2008. His contributions to the field of medicine spanned the better part of 75 years. Dr. DeBakey operated on more than 50,000 patients, including several heads of state .[16] Dr. DeBakey and a team of American cardiothoracic surgeons, including Dr. George Noon, supervised quintuple bypass surgery performed by Russian surgeons on Russian President Boris Yeltsin in 1996.[17]

During 1969, the Baylor College of Medicine separated from Baylor University under his direction. The DeBakey High School for Health Professions, the Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston in the Texas Medical Center in Houston are named after him. He had a role in establishing the Michael E. DeBakey Heart Institute at the Hays Medical Center in Kansas. Several atraumatic vascular surgical clamps and forceps that he introduced also bear his name.

In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Science. He was a Health Care Hall of Famer, a Lasker Luminary, and a recipient of The United Nations Lifetime Achievement Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, and The National Medal of Science. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Foundation for Biomedical Research and in 2000 was cited as a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress. On April 23, 2008, he received the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.[13][18][19]

[Ferret_Herder]

/salute

A lot of people don’t realize how comparatively recently a lot of medical developments have come into being. A maker of history has passed from us.

[Mighty_Girl]

What a waste! We need to get cracking on some invention that would preserve these great minds. It makes me sad that he’s gone, but how lucky the world was for having him, and how lucky he was to make it into such an old age while still sound of mind.

[cornflakes]

What’s admirable to me is that DeBakey never really retired. For what it’s worth, Denton Cooley (the other pioneer in heart surgery) is 87 and heads up surgeon recruitment for the Texas Heart Hospital.

[cochrane]

I’m amazed he lived to such an advanced age and I salute him for contributing to the field of cardiac medicine until the day he died.

[Ranchoth]

Wow…sounds like quite a man.

These guys really need better press. Maybe a toy line, or something.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

Can anyone name any Arabs important in the world today? Any Arab who has contributed in the fields of science or medicine?

[Hirundo82]

@Paul in Saudi

Can anyone name any Arabs important in the world today? Any Arab who has contributed in the fields of science or medicine?

Dr. DeBakey’s parents were Lebanese immigrants. Or did you mean someone currently practicing/working (he wasn’t active for a couple of years before his death AFAIK).

[Paul_in_Qatar]

Do I suppose he counts.

(Remarkable how few Arab-Americans the average person can name.)

[Kizarvexius]

Dr. DeBakey performed open-heart surgery on my grandfather and gave him ten more years of life when every other doctor had given him up for dead. We still get Christmas cards from DeBakey and his family every year.

Requiescat in pacem, doc. The world will miss you.

[Ranchoth]

@Paul in Saudi

Can anyone name any Arabs important in the world today? Any Arab who has contributed in the fields of science or medicine?

Well, you know the old joke…“Q: What have Arabs ever contributed to western civilization? Answer…Zero!”

[Gukumatz]

@Paul in Saudi

Can anyone name any Arabs important in the world today? Any Arab who has contributed in the fields of science or medicine?

Well, Hussam Fahdli (retired heart surgeon, incidentally, and contemporary sculptor) is fairly famous. His name gets bandied a lot, at least. And Ahmed Zewail and Elias Corey won the Nobel prizes. (1999 and 1991 respectively, IIRC.)
¨
For what it’s worth, Ralph Nader was also born to Lebanese immigrants.

Any particular reason?

[cornflakes]

@Paul in Saudi

Can anyone name any Arabs important in the world today? Any Arab who has contributed in the fields of science or medicine?

Joe Jamail, if you will settle for Lebanese. It’s been decades since he bankrupted Texaco, but he’s still giving the money out in endowments.