The Father of Modern Cardiovascular Surgery: Dr. Michael E. DeBakey
The Early Years
Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., born Sept. 7, 1908 in Lake Charles, La., was the first of five children of Lebanese immigrants Shaker Morris and Raheehja DeBakey. Valedictorian of his high school class, he pursued a college education at Tulane University.
At Tulane, he earned enough credits by the end of his second year to enter medical school. He combined his final undergraduate courses with medical studies. As a result, he received his B.S. in 1930, his M.D. in 1932, and a M.S. in 1935. During his final year in medical school, he created the roller pump. Two decades later, it became a crucial component of the heart-lung machine that paved the way for open-heart surgery.
Following an internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, he continued his studies in Strasbourg, France, and Heidelberg, Germany. Returning to the United States in 1937, he joined Tulane's faculty. At the beginning of World War II, he volunteered to serve in the armed forces. As Colonel Michael DeBakey, he served on the Army Surgeon General's staff. During this time, he published a number of papers about treating chest wounds and vascular injuries in injured military personnel. His work led to the development of mobile army surgical hospitals or MASH units. In addition, he helped establish the system of treating military personnel returning from the war, a concept that evolved into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center System, now the Department of Veterans Affairs. For his service, he received the U.S. Army Legion of Merit Award.
Educator
In 1948, DeBakey accepted the chairmanship of the department of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine, then newly established in Houston. He helped establish the school's residency programs, starting with surgery.
In 1969, he was named BCM's president. In his 10-year tenure in that office, he propelled Baylor toward national and international acclaim as one of the best medical schools in the United States.
One of his proudest educational achievements was the establishment of the Michael E. DeBakey High School for Health Professions, a joint project of BCM and the Houston Independent School District. The school enabled students, many of them members of underrepresented minorities, to obtain the basic education they needed to do well as undergraduates and eventually enter medical school.
In 1978, he assumed the post of Chancellor, in which he served until 1996, when he became Chancellor Emeritus. A number of buildings, organizations and awards pay tribute to his dedication to the College.
During his career, DeBakey wrote more than 1,400 articles, chapters and books including two New York Times best-sellers: The Living Heart and The New Living Heart Diet. Other popular books he co-authored include The Living Heart Brand Name Shopper's Guide, The Living Heart Guide to Eating Out and The New Living Heart.
Surgeon
Best known for his trailblazing efforts in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, DeBakey was the first to perform successful excision and graft replacement of aneurysms of the thoracic aorta and obstructive lesions of the major arteries. A pioneer in the development of an artificial heart, he was the first to use a partial artificial heart -- a left ventricular bypass pump, successfully.
In 1953, DeBakey performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy, thereby establishing the field of surgery for strokes. In 1963, he received the first federally funded grant to establish a program for the development of artificial heart pumps, a project on which he had long labored. In the 1950s, he also developed the first Dacron grafts designed to replace areas of arteries weakened by aneurysms. In 1964, DeBakey and associates performed the first successful aortocoronary-artery bypass with autogenous vein graft. In 1966, he was the first to successfully implant a left ventricular assist device, which helped failing hearts pump blood. In 1968, he led a team of surgeons in a historic multiple-transplantation procedure in which the heart, kidneys, and one lung of a donor were transplanted to four recipients.
He and colleagues developed the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, which he believed could help a failing heart pump blood. He believed that two working together could function as a total heart replacement.
A prolific physician and teacher, DeBakey performed more than 60,000 cardiovascular procedures and trained more than 1,000 surgeons who now practice throughout the world. The Michael E. DeBakey International Cardiovascular Surgical Society was founded Jan. 20, 1977, in honor of his dedication to teaching. Subsequently renamed the Michael E. DeBakey International Surgical Society, this organization perpetuates DeBakey's vision through scholarship, training and recognition.
Medical Statesman Extraordinaire
Since World War II, DeBakey has served as an advisor to most American presidents. In 1949, as a member of the Task Force on Medical Services of the Hoover Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch, he led the movement to establish the National Library of Medicine, which now contains more than 6.2 million books, journals, technical reports, manuscripts, microfilms, and pictorial and audiovisual materials. He was also chairman of the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke.
DeBakey did not limit his work as a medical statesman to the United States. He helped establish cardiovascular surgery programs and even health-care systems in a number of countries, including Germany, China, Italy, Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Spain, as well as nations in Central and South America.
He received approximately 50 honorary degrees from colleges and universities and more than 200 awards from educational institutions, civic organizations and governments worldwide. Among his major awards are the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the President of the United States bestows upon a civilian, the Lasker Award (the American equivalent of the Nobel Prize) and the Congressional Gold Medal.