Houston: 1990–2008

The era of 1990–2008 sees the establishment of the MicroMed organization to further collaboration with NASA on a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The High School for Health Sciences in Houston is named for DeBakey. DeBakey is consulted in the heart surgery case of Russian President Boris Yeltsin. Baylor and Methodist Hospital celebrate DeBakey’s 50th anniversary in Houston, but then split. Hurricane Katrina disrupts Tulane Medical School, and DeBakey is instrumental in a temporary transfer of personnel and students to Baylor. DeBakey suffers aortic dissection at age 97, but survives the operation—a procedure which he had helped to develop. He continues in his role as medical statesman. DeBakey receives the Congressional Gold Medal, and there is rapprochement between DeBakey and Cooley. Dr. DeBakey dies in 2008, mourned across the globe and recognized as one of the all-time greatest physician-scientists in history.

Houston: 1956–1960

DeBakey and his team conquer aortic aneurysms in the chest, as well as occluded arteries throughout the body. The Baylor team invents and perfects new instruments and prosthetic arterial substitutes, transforming the practice of vascular surgery. With the new heart-lung machine the Houston group enthusiastically embraces open-heart surgery. The demanding Baylor surgery residency develops. DeBakey becomes a key member of the Second Hoover Commission, which helps establish the National Library of Medicine. DeBakey begins to spread the word of the new surgery by visiting centers worldwide, including in the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Washington, D.C. and New Orleans: 1942–1948

DeBakey is made Consultant in the Surgeon General’s Office, participating in personnel assignments, modernization of equipment, and much writing. Military red tape vexes his efforts to prevent a repeat of the medical lessons learned during World War I, and the soldiers suffer as trench foot reappears. Auxiliary Surgical Groups are formed for front-line surgery. DeBakey tours the armies in Europe, compiling data for scientific analysis. After the war, DeBakey remains in uniform for a year, is appointed to a full Colonel and other positions of importance, and returns to New Orleans a figure well-known to leaders in American medicine and politics.

Tulane University: 1926–1935

Michael moves to New Orleans, has eye-opening experiences in the French Quarter, and his first-semester grades suffer. Influential professors shape his love of learning and research. He encounters Alton Ochsner, Chief of Tulane Department of Surgery and a highly influential future mentor. He has dramatic and defining clinical experiences at New Orleans’ Mercy and Charity Hospitals. While still a medical student, Michael invents a new transfusion syringe. The legendary surgeon and polymath Rudolph Matas befriends the eager young Michael, becoming another revered role model. DeBakey graduates from medical school at the top of his class and decides to become a surgeon, training under Ochsner.

Epilogue

The Epilogue provides a description of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey’s funeral and interment and a brief summation of his accomplishments and his legacy of advancements in medical technology and patient care. Also provided is a brief account of DeBakey’s surviving family members.

Houston: 1951–1956

As the 1950s begin, DeBakey focuses his efforts on the new field of vascular surgery, and he recruits a stellar cast of surgeons for his faculty at Baylor, including Denton Cooley. New operations are devised to address aortic aneurysms and carotid disease. At home, Diana copes with her husband’s absences with stoic grace, and the four sons born to the DeBakeys also follow their father’s single-minded commitment to medicine. DeBakey participates in the Hoover Commission. By the mid-1950s, Baylor, in Texas, is a leading center in the world for vascular surgery. Plastic arterial grafts are invented.

Lake Charles: 1908–1926

A brief history of DeBakey’s birthplace, Lake Charles, Louisiana, is provided. Michael observes and absorbs defining characteristics of his father: work ethic, self-discipline, precise thinking. He also appreciates and internalizes the qualities of his mother: kindness, charity, love. He has the typical boyhood friendships and mischief of the time and place, peppered with hints of genius. The family embarks on a six-month journey to Europe and the Middle East in Michael’s 13th year, which will shape and inform the young man’s perceptions of human society for the rest of his life. As an adolescent Michael decides to become a physician. He matriculates at Tulane University.

Houston: 1969

Dr. Denton Cooley’s patient Haskell Karp awaits a heart transplant and is offered a temporary artificial heart instead. The chapter recapitulates the efforts of the DeBakey lab in artificial heart experiments and the development of testable model. Cooley and DeBakey lab technician Domingo Liotta conspire to hijack an artificial heart model. Implantation of the device occurs in Karp, followed by pleas for human donor. Baylor investigates the circumstances of the Karp operation and the procuring of an artificial heart. Following the investigation, Liotta is dismissed and Cooley resigns. This is the beginning of a four-decade estrangement between DeBakey and Cooley.

Houston: 1970–1989

Amid ongoing efforts at understanding atherosclerosis, Baylor becomes research “Supercenter.” Diana DeBakey, the wife of Michael E. DeBakey dies. DeBakey travels to China and Soviet Union, and communicates with President Nixon. Celebrities and nobility come to Houston to be treated by DeBakey. DeBakey meets and marries German actress Katrin Fehlhaber. His book, The Living Heart, is published. DeBakey becomes Chancellor of the college, and later he operates on the deposed Shah of Iran. DeBakey is instrumental in the founding of the Journal of Vascular Surgery. Investigations are begun into infection as a possible cause of atherosclerosis, and the period sees the beginnings of Baylor’s collaboration with NASA in the development of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD).

Houston: 1948–1951

DeBakey decides to move from New Orleans and take up the reins of the new Department of Surgery at Baylor School of Medicine in 1948. The medical school is understaffed, and the local surgeons are unqualified. There is no University Hospital. After soul-searching, DeBakey opts to remain in Houston. Fortune turns, and with his connections in Washington, D.C., DeBakey obtains the VA Hospital for Baylor as a teaching institution. He befriends local philanthropist Ben Taub, who delivers the Charity Hospital to DeBakey’s teaching service. Grants from the federal government and other local philanthropists help to fund the Surgery Department’s research.