Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, a medical pioneer who was the driving force in developing the field of cardiac surgery, operating on more than 60,000 patients and developing medical technology that saved millions more, has died. He was 99.
DeBakey died Friday at Methodist Hospital in Houston, the Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital announced, without specifying the cause of death.
In his highly influential career, DeBakey performed the first coronary artery bypass surgery and the first carotid endarterectomy to prevent strokes. He developed the pump that is the key component of the heart-and-lung machines routinely used on patients during heart surgery and an artificial heart now used to keep patients alive while they wait for their own heart to improve.
He also developed the concept of the mobile army surgical hospital -- immortalized in the film "M*A*S*H." He also played a key role in the creation of the National Library of Medicine and transformed the Baylor College of Medicine and its Texas Medical Center from a third-rate hospital into a nationally recognized center of excellence for heart care.
He was the go-to guy for the rich and the famous, caring for Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis and comedian Jerry Lewis, among others. But he was equally solicitous of the non-celebrity patients who passed through his surgical suite, spending time with their families and often staying overnight in his office when he thought a patient might be in danger.
Yeltsin called him "a magician of the heart," and the Journal of the American Medical Assn. said many consider him to be the "the greatest surgeon ever."
"His contributions have been enormous, and he will leave an amazing legacy," said Dr. Claude Lenfant, director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. Unlike many of his famous contemporaries, DeBakey "has exported his know-how to the world."
"There is no question that he was one of the pioneers of cardiovascular surgery in the last half of the 20th century," Dr. Denton Cooley, president and surgeon-in-chief at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston and longtime DeBakey rival, said Saturday.
The heart was a virtually untouchable organ when DeBakey received his medical degree, and cardiovascular surgery was little more than a glint in the eyes of a few physicians. He trained as a general surgeon under the mentorship of Dr. Alton Ochsner of Tulane University.
