Sunday, March 16, 2008

Dr. Michael DeBakey

Note: Dr. DeBakey died on July 11, 2008 at the age of 99.

It is only fitting that the man so very responsible for the prolonged lives of so many people should himself be appraoching the magic century mark himself. It is has been widely said that he knows more about hearts, and has done more to strengthen and preserve them—and thus life itself—than anyone in history. The pioneering cardiovascular surgeon, he was one of the first to perform coronary artery bypass surgery, and in 1953 he performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy. He is also known for his innovative research and is credited with inventing and perfecting scores of medical devices, techniques and procedures which have led to healthy hearts and productive lives for millions throughout the world. Dacron arteries, arterial bypass operations, artificial hearts, heart pumps and heart transplants are common procedures in today's medicine, thanks to Dr. DeBakey. In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Additionally, Michael DeBakey is credited with developing the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (M.A.S.H.) concepts for the military, which has led to saving thousands during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. He had nothing to do with the movie or TV Show. He has operated on Boris Yeltsin, Sen. John Glenn, the Shah of Iran, Wayne Newton.

Dr. DeBakey is the personal physician of Jerry Lewis, who adores him to the point of carrying around his photos in his wallet. Every August, before he does his annual telethon to raise money for muscular dystrophy, Jerry flies to Houston for a complete physical and a consultation with the doctor. The doctor has performed surgery on Jerry at least three time, though ironically did not perform Jerry's heart operation (see below). The two men met in 1970, when DeBakey joined the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the organization Jerry serves as national chairman. He served on MDA's board from 1972 to 1991 and has been an MDA national vice president since then.

In 1978, while accompanying a friend to Houston to see a specialist, Jerry collapsed while walking through the hospital. DeBakey thought he'd had a heart attack. But a cardiac checkup showed Jerry's heart was fine. When they x-rayed his abdomen, though, the doctors found that he's been bleeding from a fist-sized ulcer, the symptoms of which were masked by the Percodan Jerry had been addicted to. DeBakey pried the drug abuse admission from Jerry, put him under sedation, and gave him steroid injections for his spine. This went on for 2 weeks. After taking Jerry off sedation, and with the ulcer healed, the doctor lectured Jerry about Percodan, virtually ending the addiction.

Jerry's open heart surgery in 1982 was so sudden that it precluded Dr. Debakey from performing it, though he was consulted. The operation was done at Desert Springs Hospital in Las Vegas, where Jerry lives. In 1992, DeBakey successfully performed surgery on Jerry to rid him of prostate cancer.

In 2002, DeBakey had Jerry under the knife once again. Jerry had suffered for years with chronic pain from a 1965 fall off a piano. He landed on a steel microphone cable, and it left his spine hanging at 15/16ths of an inch. The doctor implanted in Jerry a new device from Medtronic Inc., the Minneapolis company that invented the heart pacemaker, a battery-powered pulse generator. Two wires deliver electronic impulses from the device to the spinal cord, where electrodes are embedded to stop the pain from going to the brain. When Lewis left the hospital five days later, he was able to walk down a 200-yard corridor.

On December 31, 2005, at age 97, Dr. DeBakey suffered an aortic dissection, the very condition that his pioneering procedure was designed to treat. He was hospitalized at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. Dr. DeBakey initially resisted the surgical option, but as his health deteriorated, the Houston Methodist Hospital Ethics Committee approved the operation; on February 9–February 10 he became the oldest patient ever to undergo the surgery for which he was responsible. The operation lasted seven hours. After a complicated postoperative course that required eight months in the hospital, at a cost of over one million dollars, Dr. DeBakey was released in September 2006 and has returned to good health.

Sadly, Dr. DeBakey did not make the century mark. On July 11, 2008, DeBakey died of natural causes at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. A memorial service was held at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, on July 16, 2008 after lying in repose in Houston's City Hall, the first ever to do so. He was granted ground burial in Arlington National Cemetery by the Secretary of the Army.


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http://turning80thisyear.blogspot.com/

http://turning90thisyear.blogspot.com/

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Manoel de Oliveira