Heart surgery pioneer dies

Written byMegan Scudellari

| 1 min read

Michael E. DeBakey, heart surgeon, inventor, teacher, and research advocate, died late last Friday, July 11th, at the age of 99. DeBakey was "the greatest surgeon of the twentieth century," his colleague George Noon said in a linkurl:statement;http://www.methodisthealth.com/tmhs/newsItem.do?channelId=-1073829253&contentId=1073905926&contentType=NEWS_CONTENT_TYPE from Methodist Hospital in Houston, where he spent most of his career. During his 70 years as a surgeon, DeBakey performed over 60,000 heart surgeries at the linkurl:Methodist Hospital;http://www.methodisthealth.com/tmhs/mdhvc.do?channelId=-1073833234&contentId=1073790473&contentType=SERVICE_CONTENT_TYPE and served as President, and later, Chancellor of the linkurl:Baylor School of Medicine.;http://www.bcm.edu/pa/debakey/index.cfm Outside of the operating room, DeBakey served as advisor to President Johnson and other world leaders, and worked as chairman of the Foundation for Biomedical Research, a champion organization for linkurl:animal use in biomedical research.;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/7735/ In 1949, he led the movement to establish the National Library of Medicine, which now holds many of the 1,000-plus medical reports, papers, and books he authored. In 1932, while still in medical school at Tulane University in Louisiana, DeBakey devised the "roller pump," a vital component to the heart-lung machine for open-heart surgery. He went on to develop linkurl:many innovations;http://www.bcm.edu/pa/debakey/contributions.cfm now routinely used in heart surgery, including bypass pumps and artificial heart grafts. He was the first surgeon to successfully implant a partial artificial heart, a technology he helped develop. DeBakey did not put down his scalpel until 1998, at the age of 90. Eight years later, he successfully underwent surgery for a damaged aorta - a procedure he developed. In April this year, he received the Congressional Medal of Honor. "Dr. DeBakey single-handedly raised the standard of medical care," Noon said in the statement. "Physicians everywhere are indebted to him for his contributions to medicine."

Heart surgery pioneer dies

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Meet the Author

Megan Scudellari

Related Research Resources

Nergal Networks: Where Friendship Meets Infection

Research Resources

Podcasts

Webinars

Videos

Infographics

eBooks

Maximizing Lentivirus Recovery

Unraveling Complex Biology with Five-Dimensional Multiomics

Resurrecting Plant Defense Mechanisms to Avoid Crop Pathogens

Seeing and Sorting with Confidence

Products

Product News

Waters Enhances Alliance iS HPLC System Software, Setting a New Standard for End-to-End Traceability and Data Integrity

Agilent Unveils the Next Generation in LC-Mass Detection: The InfinityLab Pro iQ Series

Agilent Announces the Enhanced 8850 Gas Chromatograph

Pioneering Cancer Plasticity Atlas will help Predict Response to Cancer Therapies