Heart surgery pioneer dies

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...