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Michael DeBakey, Consummate Medical Geek, Dead At 99
NIckGorton writes "Dr. Michael DeBakey, the father of modern heart surgery, died this week at age 99. He was integral to the development of pretty much everything in modern cardiovascular surgery: bypass (heart-lung machines that made open-heart surgery possible for the first time), coronary artery bypass surgery (he did the first one ever), carotid endarterectomey (again he performed the first one), the development of Dacron graft blood vessels, and the development of MASH units. He was a consummate geek and numerous surgical instruments bear his name. He was also the first surgeon to videotape surgeries — in the 1960s. He was considered by the NEJM to be the single greatest surgeon alive until two days ago. In his career he performed over 50,000 heart surgeries and practiced medicine (though not surgery) until the day he died. In 2005 he underwent the Debakey procedure, which he pioneered, to treat the aortic dissection he suffered."
That man was truly awesome. I don't believe in the Christian god, but I don't believe in a black void either. Wherever he went I hope it's everything he deserves and I pray for that.
What an incredible contribution to science and medical technology. The number of lives that man had affected with his work.
50,000 heart surgeries? That is tireless work. If he started at 30 and worked till the day he died, that is about 2 surgeries a day. He was unable to perform surgery for the last part of his life, so it was more like 3-5 surgeries a day. That's over 50,000 people that got to live longer with their families because of him DIRECTLY. How many other people survived because of his advancements? Millions? probably, and possibly more than that.
This man was truly awesome in every sense of the word, and inspiring to others. Anybody working in any scientific field hopes to make such a contribution to the world.
May he rest in piece.
I found it rather sad (or just perplexing) that his obit was overshadowed by the death of Tony Snow, a journalist.
NBC News (Saturday) didn't even mention him at all, but did have a glowing 3+ piece on Snow.
Little over a year ago I was almost run over by a Porsche in the Texas Medical Center that looked like it was being driven by the grim specter of geath. Turns out it was DeBakey. I was later told by a friend at Baylor College of Medicine that DeBakey was still practicing when he felt like it! What a stud. 97 years old (at the time), still practicing medicine, and still spry enough to terrorize rogue jay-walkers in his 911. Via con dios, old man.
So the proof isn't in the link. So what?
He begged his parents to convince the library to let him check out the Encyclopedia Brittanica. He was a kid. His parents bought him a set, which he read, cover to cover, start to finish.
He was fascinated with medicine. His father was a pharmacist, and when other kids his age were obsessing over the usual stuff - musicians, athletes, girls - he was plotting his course as a doctor - a detailed course: exactly what classes he'd take, where he'd go to college, how he'd get his degrees.
He studied so hard that he finished his doctorate at the same time as his bachelor's. As a doctor, he completely immersed himself in his work and research as a doctor. Medicine was his job, his career, his hobby and his pastime. He loved the trivial details of his field to the point where he berated peers who didn't share the same appreciation (and, later, fired employees who cut sutures too long.)
He worked 12-hour days because he wanted to, and he did it for 75 years because he wanted to.
Here's a test: Enter an argument with the biggest ______ geek you can find about the best ______ in that topic. Take up a contrary argument and see how riled up s/he gets. Amplify it a few magnitudes and that's how DeBakey was about cardiology. Until maybe the last two years of his life, that's how he was with anything involving medicine.
(Speaking of those last two years: he had them because he underwent a surgical procedure he developed himself some 30 years prior. Reusing old work to save his own life? Check. ;) )
He was a wetware hacker in 1932, inventing the key component of the heart-lung pump - the device that enables open-heart surgery - as a 23-year-old college student. He hacked Dacron into artificial arteries using his wife's sewing machine. He invented one of the earliest artificial hearts and pioneered transplant science - all before the influences of computers, small-scale fabrication, simulation.
Intellectual pursuit of trivia at the expense of social grace? Aggressive top-dog behavior among his peers, instinctual shyness outside of his element? A constant desire to tinker, to create, to improvise?
Anyone, anyone, anyone who worked with DeBakey and knows the definition of the term "geek" would happily - and honorably - apply it to him, and strive to meet it. If anyone deserved it as an honorific, it's DeBakey. Consummate indeed, and we should all work to be half as deserving of the title in our fields.
- former Baylor med student
â Opposing view: He was also a decorated Army vet. He was a graceful statesman for medicine and public advocate for education. He was rarely out of shape, even when illness confined him to a wheelchair in his last months. He enjoyed media attention and had a large, active group of friends.
He also married a hot actress half his age and drove a sports car to work every day until he couldn't drive himself anymore â" about age 96. But if you had his money and fame, hell, wouldn't you?
In 1970, I had open heart surgery to repair an aortic ventricular aneurysm. I was 7 years old. I was on a heart-lung machine for the surgery, and my surgeon, Jay Ankeney, was undoubtable a denizen or Dr. DeBakey. At the time, open heart surgery was rare and extremely risky, and nearly unheard of on a child. A few years ago, I had the chance to meet one of the leading cardiac surgeons in Chicago, and told him about my experience. When he found out a surgeon had done open heart on a 7 year old in 1970 he exclaimed "that guy must have had steel balls to try and pull that off." DeBakey had a pair of big brass ones - EVERY time he cut into a patient, that patient was in jeopardy of dying soon, and dying from the procedure - a rock and a hard place. And he did it over and over. While 50,000 people owe him a direct debt, we all owe him an enormous one. I for one will recall his blessings.