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Legacy of Leadership: BCM Icons Set Foundation for the Futureby Ruth SoRelle, M.P.H. Michael E. DeBakey, M.D.Remembering Baylor College of Medicine's "King of Hearts"
1908-2008 He really did not want to come to Houston. And once he got here, he was not convinced he wanted to stay. Nearly 60 years later, Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., would smile as he recalled turning down the offer of the Chairmanship of the Department of Surgery twice at the fledgling Baylor College of Medicine before accepting it in 1948. When he got to Houston, a promised 20-bed surgical service at Hermann Hospital failed to materialize, and he was preparing to go elsewhere when he received a call from the U.S. Veterans Administration asking him to organize a faculty to take over what eventually would become the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Within a month, he and his faculty had moved into the former Naval Hospital and received permission to train residents there. He then persuaded legendary philanthropist Ben Taub to affiliate Jefferson Davis Hospital with the medical school. With those two successes, he put the College on the road to excellence. As DeBakey frequently pointed out, providence played a major role in many of his successes. Providence also smiled on Baylor College of Medicine when he decided to lead the school to excellence. On July 11, 2008, two months shy of his 100th birthday, DeBakey, chancellor emeritus of BCM, died, leaving behind a cast of mourners and a College that reflects his professional glory. Thousands of people passed by as he lay in state in the rotunda of Houston City Hall, and the new downtown Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart was packed for his funeral. A brassy New Orleans jazz band marshaled saints and sinners alike for a final farewell on a hot summer day. He leaves a legacy that is varied and vast—from medical firsts to educational triumphs to statesmanship. In the 1950s, he pioneered techniques in vascular surgery, performing the first removal of a blockage in the carotid artery, the major conduit of blood to the brain. In 1954, he performed the first successful graft repair and graft replacements of aortic aneurysms, weakened portions of the body's most important artery. As he said during the 2008 meeting of the Michael E. DeBakey International Cardiovascular Surgical Society, "If you look back at that period, the impact of what we did over these first eight, 10, 12 cases was to show that we could do this successfully surgically and, in a sense, helped usher in cardiovascular surgery." During this period, he developed the Dacron® graft that served to replace areas of the artery that had to be removed. In 1963, his seminal scientific report noted that portions above and below blockages in coronary arteries were often clear—opening the door to bypassing the clogged portion. In 1964, he performed the first successful coronary artery bypass. In 1966, he completed the first successful implantation of a left ventricular bypass pump—a forerunner of pumps used today. He had earlier convinced the federal government to fund work in the area of artificial hearts and brought the grant to Baylor, putting it at the forefront of such work. During the first hey-day of heart transplants between 1968 and 1970, he performed 12 such operations before ending the program because of problems with organ rejection. In 1975, a federal grant enabled him to establish the first National Heart and Blood Vessel Research and Demonstration Center at Baylor. In the 1980s, he and colleagues reported that people with atherosclerosis were more likely to be infected with cytomegalovirus, which might play a role in the development of heart disease. In 1984, he resumed heart transplants because treatments to prevent organ rejection had improved. During this period, he continued to refine the heart assist pumps that he felt provided the best chance for helping the heart pump better. By 1998, the first tiny centrifugal pump called the DeBakey VAD (ventricular assist device) was implanted in Europe. He achieved these medical advances while engaged in a full course of surgical work and educational endeavor including the authorship of two bestsellers, The Living Heart and The New Living Heart Diet. As a medical statesman, he served as an advisor to most presidents since World War II. He led the movement to establish the National Library of Medicine and he helped lobby for more funding for the National Institutes of Health. He stood by President John F. Kennedy as the President announced his plans for Medicare. His work for the military during World War II led to the establishment of medical surgical units on the field of battle and eventually mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) units. He cared for heads of state and even advised on the treatment of the late Boris Yeltsin, then president of Russia, in 1996. As an educator, he trained more than 1,000 surgeons and oversaw the education of many more physicians in his 60 years at Baylor College of Medicine. He established a pipeline from high school to medical school when he proposed the High School for Health Professions that was established in conjunction with the Houston Independent School District and now bears his name. In all of this, Baylor College of Medicine remained a foremost concern. When the school needed to take a new direction in 1969, he agreed to become its first President. In the first two years, he forged an agreement with Baylor University that allowed the medical school to become an independent institution. His agreement with the state made it possible for Texas medical students to attend BCM at tuition rates comparable to those charged by publicly funded schools. He helped raise millions to retire the College's debt. His tenure as president continued until 1978, when he became chancellor. In 1996, he assumed the role of chancellor emeritus. Presidents, kings and schoolchildren honored him. He received the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor the U.S. President can bestow, the National Medal of Science, the Lasker Award (the American equivalent to the Nobel Prize), and most recently, the Congressional Gold Medal. With the light shining on these accomplishments, it would be easy to forget that he was, first of all, a physician whose skill saved thousands of lives and improved that of many more. He not only practiced the science of medicine but also its art. As one of his students said, "He could put his hand on a patient's knee and tell that person that he or should would be fine, and the patient was instantly reassured." Perhaps it is fitting that one of his last messages to the nation dealt with the fate of patients, many of whom cannot afford health care. During the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony, he reminded the President and members of Congress that the nation's health care system needs fixing. Typically, he suggested a solution modeled on the VA system that he helped craft. Great men cast tall shadows. Their dreams become reality. Dr. Michael E. DeBakey will not walk the halls of Baylor College of Medicine again, but his dream lives on as it seeks its destiny in educating tomorrow's physicians, crafting answers to biological questions and caring for those who are ill and injured. Ralph David Feigin, M.D.Saving the world, one child at a time
1938-2008 His smile said it all. Infectious and broad, it lit up his face and the room with it. Ralph David Feigin, M.D., Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the school's President from 1996-2003, could bring a grin to a child's face and soothe an anxious parent's heart by simply walking into a room. A leader, a scientist and a top-notch clinician, he was known for his fierce advocacy for children's health. A legacy of his determination to provide the best for children is Texas Children's Hospital, the largest such institution in the United States, and a department at BCM that is ranked number one in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Feigin, a runner and non-smoker, died August 14, 2008, after a valiant battle against lung cancer. He leaves behind his family—both personal and professional—who mourn his loss and miss his indomitable spirit. "I never stop, and I never look back. I always keep moving, and I always keep looking forward," he once said. That is an accurate description of the role he played at Baylor College of Medicine in the 31 years he devoted to its mission. His force and personal charisma drew some of the best scientists and physicians in the world to the College. He accepted the College's presidency in 1996 with the aim of making it one of the top research medical schools in the nation. By 2003, when he stepped down, he had achieved that goal. Baylor College of Medicine was in the top 10 percent of medical schools. Under his leadership, Baylor's became one of the three Human Genome Sequencing Centers chosen to finish sequencing the human genome. He brought Malcolm K. Brenner, Ph.D., M.B.B.Ch., and his team to BCM to begin the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy and quickly translate laboratory findings to patient treatment. In 1997, BCM became the lead partner in the federally funded National Space Biomedical Research Institute, and in 1998, he signed C. Kent Osborne, M.D., a renowned breast cancer researcher, and his fellow experts to the BCM team. With the Texas Children's Cancer Center, the breast program—now the Lester and Sue Smith Breast Center at Baylor College of Medicine—became the core of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at BCM, a National Cancer Institute-designated program. With his support, Stuart Yudofsky, M.D., Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at BCM, began negotiations that ultimately brought The Menninger Clinic from Topeka, Kansas, to Baylor and The Methodist Hospital. It expanded the scope of BCM's program and provided care that was not previously available in Houston. His leadership enabled BCM to survive the catastrophe of Tropical Storm Allison, rallying community and College support to the reconstruction. However, his accomplishments in the field of pediatrics and the care of children stand even higher. When he came to Houston in 1977, the BCM Pediatrics Department was small with little research. Under his leadership, the faculty grew from 39 to 539. Federal research funds went from $355,000 to $89 million. Texas Children's Hospital was small, accommodating only 7,000 inpatients each year and 9,000 outpatients. Today, the institution sees 22,000 inpatients each year, 500,000 outpatients and records 85,000 emergency room visits. Numbers alone cannot encompass Feigin's reach. He was known for his compassion and for the personal touch he brought to his professional life. As Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Physician-in-Chief at Texas Children's Hospital, he trained more than 2,000 pediatricians and pediatric specialists. He met with each would-be pediatric resident who interviewed at BCM. When he became President of BCM, he made it a point of knowing the names of everyone who worked in the building with him. His skill as a diagnostician was legendary, and he seemed to carry an encyclopedic knowledge of symptoms and diagnoses with him wherever he went. He held regular rounds at which residents brought in their most difficult cases in an attempt to stump him. An email to him brought an almost immediate response from his omnipresent Blackberry. Residents knew they could bring not only their professional dilemmas to him, but also their personal ones. As he said, "One of the greatest impacts I will have is as a role model and teacher to thousands of residents. Personally, I could treat maybe 50,000 patients during my lifetime, but with teaching, the impact may be 50 million through students and the impact they have on their patients and pediatric research." He wrote the book on infectious diseases in children. His Textbook on Pediatric Infectious Diseases, co-authored with James Cherry, M.D., is the definitive source. When there was a need for pediatric expertise in Houston or elsewhere, he jumped in. He began the investigation that uncovered a meningitis cluster at a local elementary school in the early 1980s, and when public health authorities were slow to act, he and his students took action. Eventually, their findings helped establish the optimal distance between student desks to reduce the threat of the spread of meningococcal disease. A measles outbreak in the late 1980s again spurred him to action. His efforts at alerting the public to the threat of what many believed a benign childhood ailment resulted in increased immunization efforts locally. He continued those efforts at Texas Children's Hospital and through work with local public health authorities. He advocated for the federal/state Children's Health Insurance Program and for enrolling eligible children in Medicaid as part of an effort to insure that youngsters have a medical home. Children in need could seek care at Texas Children's and Ben Taub hospitals, knowing that they would be treated by some of the city's finest pediatricians. His colleagues lauded his drive, his vision, his energy and his personal strength. He received many awards in his lifetime, but his surprise and pleasure at receiving the John Howland Award, the American Pediatric Society's highest honor, was genuine and humble. Family was important to him. His wife, children and grandchildren rallied him as he ran this last race against cancer. Their words at his funeral uplifted the crowd who understood that the Feigin legacy would live on— in the laboratories at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Feigin Center, named for him and Judy Feigin, Ed.D., in the clinics, surgical suites and patient rooms of a growing Texas Children's Hospital and in the hearts of people around the world who care about children. |
FeaturesBaylor College of Medicine in Houston: 65 years of Excellence BCM Looks to the Future on the McNair Campus Legacy of Leadership: BCM Icons Set Foundation for the Future 1,000 Genomes Project: Looking for the Differences NewsO'Malley Receives National Medal of Science Robert Todd Named to Lead BCM's Department of Medicine Roy Huffington Remembered as Bold and Generous SpotlightFollowing his Passion—One Physician's Journey When Two Degrees are Better Than One: M.D. - M.P.H. Thomas Street—The Road to Health Perceiving—A new Look at Brain and Behavior BriefsGenetics Used to Personalize Heart Disease Treatment First Drug for Huntington's Disease Eye Problems from Pain Free Migraines Genetic Insights into Deadly Brain Tumor Made-to-Order Weapon in the Fight Against Childhood Cancer BCM Joins Largest Children's Study Development/AlumniGifts Help Restore Sight to Patients with Corneal Damage Alums Start Careers, Life Together at BCM Development BriefsCharitable Gifts Lead to National Recognition Trustee Chuck Watson Makes Unique Gift
Dr. DeBakey at a lab bench 
Dr. DeBakey performing surgery 
Dr. DeBakey at a BCM graduation ceremony 
Dr. Feigin with a young patient 
Dr. Feigin examines a patient 
Dr. Feigin teaching a class
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Volume 4, Issue 3, Winter 2008 |
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