Michael DeBakey, Consummate Medical Geek, Dead At 99 142
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."
Awesome Man (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Awesome Man (Score:5, Insightful)
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Anyone who believes in God should try and get Dr. DeBakey sainted. He performed many miracles, and dedicated his life to saving others. Aside from the grudge he shared with Dr. Denton Cooley, he lived his life in a morally upstanding way (he was only married twice, never getting divorced). I was going to say that they just don't make men like him anymore but I'm sure there is another DeBakey in a hospital basement somewhere chugging along researching new things.
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Re:Awesome Man (Score:5, Insightful)
How so?
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Because the poor are a necessary drag to keep the human race from advancing too far too fast.
At least that's the best I can come up with. Maybe the parent is a believer in the myth of the noble poor or something.
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If you measure advancement in $$$, science, tech, power, etc probably not.
If you measure advancement in other ways, maybe so.
It may well be that the OP is thinking that advances are love, compassion and mercy, and that the $$$, tech and power are just tools to achieve those advancements, or just minor advancements.
Have we achieved more love, compassion and mercy?
I suppose most of the "advanced" nations fight wars differently from the old days where enslavement and m
Triage (Score:3, Insightful)
Malthus still wants his due. As some point we're going to have to have some sort of triage.
We can't save everyone, and neither should we. We need to remove between $X and $X+$Y (where both $X and $Y are in the billions) people from the planet. How do you want to do it? War? Famine? Disease? Drought?
By not taking action new, we're condemning a lot MORE people to suffer in the future.
Compared to
Re:Triage (Score:5, Insightful)
Prosperity does more to curb fertility than withholding of medical care, you cruel, cruel man.
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Even if everyone today just had 2 kids, the population would continue to increase, since it takes time for people to die off.
We need to lose several billion people, not jsut slow our rate of increase.
It's not me that's cruel - its the religious nutters who over the decades have insisted that people not practice birth control, and that God wants big families. They've condemned hundreds of millions to death (an
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By not taking action new, we're condemning a lot MORE people to suffer in the future.
Or we could reduce the suffering by becoming civilized, and properly managing our resources. There's plenty for all and many more. At the same time, we do have to learn to let go. As it turns out, life is indeed eternal.
How do you want to do it? War? Famine? Disease? Drought?
You forgot Soylent Green.
MUm, er...excuse me, um, are you... are you suggesting we should eat my mother?
Yeah. Not raw, not raw. We cook her. She'd be d
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Our horrible mismanagement and wastefulness would make it appear that way. We're like most natural things and only about 20% efficient. We've hardly begun to scratch the surface of our great wealth and abundance. And we can do it all without choking and poisoning ourselves. Yes, since we do live like savage animals now, so I do recognize a need for control. How to do it without causing harm is still a mystery, but evolution will save the day if we let it happen. In the grand scheme we are but newborns who h
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Overpulation pressure is a great long term motivator for space exploration. In a world more interconnected and shrinking due to technological progress, the redundancy of beyond-Earth colonization is another welcome feature.
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I disagree. Expansion beyond earth will never have a significant effect in terms of relieving population pressure; the population can expand to fill any space you provide far too easily. In one of this books Issac Asimov calculated the date at which, assuming the current birth/death rates continued, humanity would be a single mass expanding outward at the speed of light. It was this millennium. You can't boost your way out of g
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What, you think we have enough resources for everyone? The US has 5% of the worlds' population, and consumes 20% of its' resources. Everyone else is going to be asking for their fair share in the future. That means either (a) we drain the worlds' resources at 4x the current rate, or (b) the US cuts back a LOT.
China took desperate measures wrt population because they had no choice. Guess what - neither do the rest of us.
If you think gas prices are high now, what happens when the rest of the world wants
Yeah, but he was all this "black void" (Score:1, Funny)
I told him if he kept that up, he'd never make 100. I was right.
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God IS a karma whore, you ignorant clod!
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if there is a God i bet he dont like karma whores either :D
God IS a karma whore, you ignorant clod!
OK. OK. I always wanted to do this.
In Soviet Russia, God karma whores you!
Thank you. Thank you. I'll be here all week. Be sure to tip your waitresses. Great bunch a gals. Say "Hi" Gina!
On topic note:
Although the article never mentioned the cause of death. .heart failure?
Could he have died from . .
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hey! your right!
Re:Awesome Man (Score:5, Insightful)
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The saddest part is, more people will remember idiots like G. W. Bush than this man.
Too soon to tell if that'll really be the case. (Will Dubya be remembered as a monumental failure, or will he just be something for political historians? Will DeBakey be properly remembered for his achievements, or fall into obscurity and only mentioned to those in the medical profession? If both fall out of general knowledge, which will be more widely known?) Come back in another few hundred years, maybe a thousand, and we'll see.
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I should have said 'God' person then. I don't believe in God/Allah as the Christians/Jews/Muslims do, nor any other diety concieved by humans. I really doubt there is any sort of afterlife. But my knowledge of science tells me that there is so much we do not understand about our universe to rule out the impossibilty of an afterlife in one form or another.
If you prefer to stick a label on me, then call me agnostic. I don't believe in any sort of supernatural diety, but I am not closed to that possibility
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The 'true' atheist definitively says no, and no possibility. Many self-proclaimed atheists fall more in line with the 'agnostic athiest' (and I guess I probably do as well) classification where they generally believe there is nothing, but there may be a possibility.
But this is the inherent problem with labeling people with certain viewpoints...they can't possibly be accurate because very few people share the exact same opinion. A funny survey I saw a few years back showed that most people labeling themsel
Re:Awesome Man (Score:5, Informative)
Look at this at the Wikipedia. This guy was really something. May he rest in peace, wherever he is. And thank you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_DeBakey
Honors
* Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Medical Films
* American Heart Association (AHA)
* Children Uniting Nations
* Encyclopaedia Britannica
* Foundation for Biomedical Research
* International College of Angiology
* International Health and Medical Film Festival
* Research! America
* Tulane Medical Alumni Association
* U.S. Army Legion of Merit (1945)
* American Medical Association Hektoen Gold Medal (1954 and 1970)
* Rudolph Matas Award in Vascular Surgery (1954)
* International Society of Surgery Distinguished Service Award (1958)
* Leriche Award (1959)
* American Medical Association Distinguished Service Award (1959)
* Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research (1963)
* American Medical Association Billings Gold Medal Exhibit Award (1967)
* American Heart Association Gold Heart Award (1968)
* Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences 50th Anniversary Jubilee Medal (1973)
* Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Foreign Member (1974)
* Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chiefâ(TM)s Medal and Citation (1980)
* American Surgical Association Distinguished Service Award (1981)
* Academy of Surgical Research Markowitz Award (1988)
* Association of American Medical Colleges Special Recognition Award (1988)
* American Legion Distinguished Service Award (1990)
* Premio Giuseppe Corradi Award for Surgery and Scientific Research (1997)
* Russian Military Medical Academy, Boris Petrovsky International Surgeons Award and First Laureate of the Boris Petrovsky Gold Medal (1997)
* John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award (1999)
* Russian Academy of Sciences Foreign Member (1999)
* Texas Senate and House of Representatives, Adoption of resolutions honoring Dr. DeBakey for 50 years of medical practice in Texas (1999)
* American Medical Association Virtual Mentor Award (2000)
* American Philosophical Society Jonathan Rhoads Medal (2000)
* Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend Award (2000)
* Villanova University Mendel Medal Award (2001)
* Houston Hall of Fame (2001)
* NASA Invention of the Year Award (2001)
* MUSC[1] "Lindbergh-Carrel Prize"[2](2002)
* Congressional Gold Medal (April 23, 2008)
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From the Wikipedia page:
and in 1953 he performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy.
This man is a brilliant bloke, and a bit of a bloody legend.
I've never met the man, but because of only one of the things he pioneered, I can tell people who've just found out - after I've done an ultrasound - they've got an 80-99% blockage of their carotid artery, that they can have a short, straightforward surgery and have an excellent chance of not having any side-effects.
This beats the daylights out of having a
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Just 1 more year, and he would have become a centenarian. (100 yr old). Too bad.
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Not even a year, more like 2 months...
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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.
DeBakey started performing surgery in his late twenties and continued to perform heart surgery well into his 90s - his pace deteriorated until about 2003-04, when health conditions forced him to stop.
To put that in perspective, he performed heart surgery for more than 60 years. He practiced medicine for about 75 years.
How many of you have lived half that long?
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What a giant of a human being.
On another note, what really struck me this weekend was how the cable networks spent so much time covering Tony Snow, who passed on around the same time, and barely mentioned Dr. DeBakey. He got a lot more coverage in the Houston, Texas press.
Welcome back. (Score:3, Insightful)
I had the option of modding you down, but it felt more appropriate to bring this up instead.
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Ah, crap. (Score:3, Informative)
Sorry about that. Feel free to mod down.
And Yet.... (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Journalists take care of their own, just like politicians take care of their own when it comes to naming bridges, buildings, and streets. "Gee, that guy worked hard every day, he deserves to be honored for the next 200 years". Not to people outside that profession thoughs.
I hope that when Dick Cheney passes away, some publications will have the good sense to report it as follows: "Former VP Richard Cheney passed away today. We extend our condolences to his family and friends. Now, let's move on."
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I hope that when Dick Cheney passes away, some publications will have the good sense to report it as follows: "Former VP Richard Cheney passed away today. We extend our condolences to his family and friends. Now, let's move on."
...whereas, most of us just hope that he DOES pass away, as opposed to growing stronger with the Dark Side of the Force...
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The public want their entertainment. People who are intelligent care about different things than do the vast mob of phucktards that comprise most of the population.
Don't ever expect that to be different.
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Yeah, it hoses but at the same time we need to also consider that it's part of the business (yes, it's very much a business regardless of how they like to paint themselves) of reporting on the popular. Most people, including myself, knew little if anything about Dr. DeBakey. And besides, people who coul
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The media generally focuses on what they want you to think is important. While Snow's death is also a tragedy, I could see the argument that he did not contribute to the betterment of humanity as much as DeBakey. This was also illustrated when John Lee Hooker and Carrol O'Connor died on the same day. Hooker gave great contributions to music in the form of popularizing a new blues style and contributing to the development of rock and roll. O'Connor gave us Archie Bunker and other network trash. Guess wh
That's going to cause a bit of confusion (Score:2)
... and numerous surgical instruments bear his name
Doctor: Ahh, a new surgical instrument. Wonderful. What's it called, nurse?
Nurse: A "Michael"
Doctor: That's going to cause a bit of confusion, mind if we call it a Debakey?
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
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For the Monty-Python impaired:
http://orangecow.org/pythonet/sketches/bruces.htm [orangecow.org]
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA [youtube.com]
There's been DeBakeys for a while (Score:2)
DeBakeys are a long (8 inch) pair of pick-ups or "tweezers" that have been around for a long time. There are at least 3-4 DeBakey clamps that I can think of.
I just used a set of DeBakey pick-ups yesterday, and more importantly my Grandma survived her quadruple heart bypass. Thanks Dr.DeBakey for all your contributions. God rest your soul, as you've earned it, and some nice R&R.
Lived to 99 (Score:1, Insightful)
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Grim specter of death (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
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Actually, that was probably me. Sorry about that. And no, I'm not joking.
I'm afraid I must intervene! (Score:1, Offtopic)
Not nearly enough recognition (Score:5, Informative)
To put in a large perspective, for example, Texas crashed when oil crashed in the late 70's. In response, Texas diversified. DeBakey was one of a small number of people that truly drove that diversification, making Texas not only rich in oil, but rich in more long term wealth like research and cutting edge technology. He worked with innovations around him to help create what is now one of the greatest medical complexes in the world. Surely he worked with many other people, and many other tech workers, but he certainly was one of the people that kept texas from becoming a backwater, like so many other states that has not invested so much in the future.
And speaking of the future, The High School for Health Professions is a public Houston Independent School District high school. It was not built in the suburbs or in the demographically acceptable area, like some special high schools. It used to be located on the ass end on the Texas Medical Center, but when the built it for real they made it accessible to a cross section of students. It is almost 1/3 asian, 1/3 black, and 1/3 Hispanic or white. Whites are low presumably because so few whites live in the area. The school is nearly 50% free or reduced lunch, nearly 10% at risk, which is good for a school where 1/3 of the students are GT and 2/3 are in honors classes. This is not a school where the elite train the elite. This is not a school where the faint of heart go for college prep knowing full well that they have legacy to get them into an ivy league school. This is a school where slightly above average kids can go to get educated, without having to deal with the losers who would waste the opportunity/
This man did a lot, and has been recognized more than enough. But here is what rubs the geek side of me the wrong way. A man who boozes his way though life, swindles funding for projects that never quite succeed, and on a fluke gets elected president has an airport named after him, while someone like Debakey has spent his entire life helping people, does note. Not to be critical, but something seems not quite right.
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I am sure that many identify with what you are saying.
I though tend to detach from what seems to be the unfairness of life. Why does someone get 99 years and another only 18 years... the truth is that there is no true understanding.
The Dalai Lama said (paraphrased)
My friends will pass away
My enemies will pass away
My happiness and dreams will pass away
My sorrows and failures will pass away
I, and the reflection of that who I am, too will pass away
Re:Not nearly enough recognition (Score:5, Funny)
Remarkable statement for a man that has been reincarnated over a dozen times...
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Hey, he didn't say permanently.
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Guess it is like the ship full of yoyo's that sank 600 times.
"I, and the reflection of that who I am, too will pass away"
The "I am" part is eternal. The "I" part is the personality and somewhat changes each lifetime.
At best we get a dim reflection of who we truly are in each lifetime.
I do believe though that Michael DeBakey most likely had a reflection as strong as anyone on Earth for he was truly remarkable in all aspects.
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Don't forget the George W. Bush Sewage Plant. A rare honor indeed.
http://presidentialmemorial.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com]
RIP (Score:1)
"Consummate geek" (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"Consummate geek" (Score:4, Insightful)
To me it felt more like the word "geek" was included just to justify it being on Slashdot and fend off some of the inevitable "WTF is this doing on Slashdot?" Posts. Both of which would be stupid, since this is science and technology related -- neither of which are off-topic here.
"Geek" is such a nebulous term anyway. Anyone with sufficient interest in something can be considered a geek. Of course, around here, the word does have a certain connotation.
Re:"Consummate geek" (Score:4, Interesting)
Clearly you didn't read enough of the article.
When he died, his hair was purple and he was wearing a shirt that said "+1 Shirt".
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I just figured he liked to snack on the stuff that he excised, especially for surgeries that had an audience.
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Re:"Consummate geek" (Score:4, Interesting)
Because, "anime-obsessed, Monty Python-incessantly-quoting dweebs" isn't the only definition of "geek", though it is a derogatory one.
"Geek", as I understand the term, usually refers to someone who excels at, is fascinated by, and focuses on one particular thing, often though not always of a scientific or technical nature.
However, in the case of the late, esteemed Michael DeBakey, perhaps "hacker" might be the more appropriate term, given the hands-on nature of his work - a hacker of the human body, in the best, most respectful sense of the term.
Re:"Consummate geek" (Score:5, Informative)
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?
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Great comment.
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I suspect the individual who submitted the article may have been using the old school meaning of the word "geek", as opposed to the meaning hijacked onto the word by anime-obsessed, Monty Python-incessantly-quoting dweebs.
Happy Trails (Score:1)
Separated at birth? (Score:2, Insightful)
Dr. DeBakey - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debakey [wikipedia.org]
Prof. Farnsworth - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_J._Farnsworth [wikipedia.org]
This man helped save my life (Score:5, Informative)
I've had three open-heart surgeries due to Tetralogy of Fallot [wikipedia.org]. Shortly before my second surgery, I caught chicken pox from a classmate. The chicken pox trashed my immune system and I also had bacterial endocarditis, encephalitis, spinal meningitis, pneumonia, and Reyes Syndrome [wikipedia.org]. Dr. Denton Cooley did the surgery with Dr. DeBakey assisting. They cleaned the endocarditis out of my heart, by hand, put a porcine valve [wikipedia.org] in the aortic opening, and replace the badly infected dacron patch on my VSD [wikipedia.org].
I'm going to miss him. :(
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Whoah, you've really been through the wringer then. I'm glad he could help you and hope you are ok now :)
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I was about to say... (Score:3, Informative)
...where the fuck is his Presidential Medal of Freedom, but it turns out that he's already been awarded one [wikipedia.org] almost 50 years ago. His list of honors and accolades is huge:
* Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Medical Films
* American Heart Association (AHA)
* Children Uniting Nations
* Encyclopaedia Britannica
* Foundation for Biomedical Research
* International College of Angiology
* International Health and Medical Film Festival
* Research! America
* Tulane Medical Alumni Association
* U.S. Army Legion of Merit (1945)
* American Medical Association Hektoen Gold Medal (1954 and 1970)
* Rudolph Matas Award in Vascular Surgery (1954)
* International Society of Surgery Distinguished Service Award (1958)
* Leriche Award (1959)
* American Medical Association Distinguished Service Award (1959)
* Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research (1963)
* American Medical Association Billings Gold Medal Exhibit Award (1967)
* American Heart Association Gold Heart Award (1968)
* Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences 50th Anniversary Jubilee Medal (1973)
* Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Foreign Member (1974)
* Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chiefâ(TM)s Medal and Citation (1980)
* American Surgical Association Distinguished Service Award (1981)
* Academy of Surgical Research Markowitz Award (1988)
* Association of American Medical Colleges Special Recognition Award (1988)
* American Legion Distinguished Service Award (1990)
* Premio Giuseppe Corradi Award for Surgery and Scientific Research (1997)
* Russian Military Medical Academy, Boris Petrovsky International Surgeons Award and First Laureate of the Boris Petrovsky Gold Medal (1997)
* John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award (1999)
* Russian Academy of Sciences Foreign Member (1999)
* Texas Senate and House of Representatives, Adoption of resolutions honoring Dr. DeBakey for 50 years of medical practice in Texas (1999)
* American Medical Association Virtual Mentor Award (2000)
* American Philosophical Society Jonathan Rhoads Medal (2000)
* Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend Award (2000)
* Villanova University Mendel Medal Award (2001)
* Houston Hall of Fame (2001)
* NASA Invention of the Year Award (2001)
* MUSC[1] "Lindbergh-Carrel Prize"[2](2002)
* Congressional Gold Medal (April 23, 2008)
Note that he not only won awards from the States, but the U.S.S.R. honored him with awards as well. Our mortal enemy for nearly 50 years recognized how great this guy is.
Has Bush said anything about this, or is he continuing to be an inept idiot ignorant of events in the scientific community?
Missing Option... (Score:1)
Where's the Nobel Prize you insensitive clods?
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* Encyclopaedia Britannica
Hmm.... I never realized it was quite so prestigious to own a copy of Britannica...
In fact, this list seems to indicate that it's even more important than the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which DeBakey received in 1969, but isn't on the list.
I owe him my life as well . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
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I keep reading that `50,000 people` are in his debt but that would assume a 0% mortality rate. I wonder what the real numbers are.
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Seeing as that is just the number of operations, it might be much less (failed operations, "repeat" patients). But, if you consider the techniques and technology he pioneered, it is much much *more* than 50,000.
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I keep reading that `50,000 people` are in his debt but that would assume a 0% mortality rate. I wonder what the real numbers are.
Even then, there are philisophical aspects. Of those 50,000 probably 99.9% faced certain death if he didn't operate. I mean, open heart surgery isn't like a tonsillectomy. I'd say that even the unsuccessful patients' families owe at least a little gratitude to the premier heart surgeon in the history of the world who personally took the case and gave it his best, even if it didn't work out.
Personal DeBakey story:
I was studying to be an OR tech in '93 at Naval Hospital San Diego, and was in surgical rotat
We will miss him (Score:2)
Will be sincerely missed.
Dr. DeBakey was an example to be followed, a man who knew no bounds in his interdisciplinary research and persuit for the betterment of human life.
In this sad day, all our hearts are made a little bit out of titanium alloy - to be like the ones you made to give life to those who needed to extend it so badly.
R.I.P. Dr. DeBakey
and thank you.
Bypass? (Score:1, Informative)
The bypass was developed by Favaloro, one of the gretests surgeons in Argentina.
Wikipedia [wikipedia.org] says: Dr. René GerÃnimo Favaloro (July 12, 1923 â" July 29, 2000) was an Argentine cardiac surgeon who created the technique for coronary bypass surgery.
Progess (Score:2)
Thank you and may you rest in peace.
A sad day (Score:2)
early riser (Score:3, Funny)
He's no geek!
My parents knew him. (Score:2)
My Mom worked for him briefly, and My Dad met him during his residency. And the moral of the story is, if you not only personally save countless lives but create techniques that allow countless others to save countless lives (thus revolutionizing not merely medical science but Mathematics, with this concept of "finite uncountability"), then you're allowed to be an asshole.
The rest of you are not quite so cool -- so be nice to each other.
don't skip Rene Favoloro (Score:1)
True true... (Score:2)
All my scalpels are called Michael.
Godspeed, Doctor! (Score:1)
Emigrant Parents (Score:3, Interesting)
I grew up in the town where his parents (the Dabaghi's which was later anglicised to DeBakey) came from in South Lebanon.
When I was still in that town, over 30 years ago he was a very famous man in that (his family is a big part of town as well) and in the sixties when he visited his relatives there was accorded great honours.
Anyway, I reckon his fame and his ability to achieve great things were great conributing factors that lead many people in that town to also emigrate to US and also achieve many great things as US citizens.
It shows that migrants are able to contribute considerably t their adoptive society than most people fear.
Well... (Score:1)
First open heart surgery (Score:2)
I think Blalock [wikipedia.org] and Thomas [wikipedia.org] were the first to directly operate on the heart. They were treating blue babys in the 40's. Thomas' role is especially remarkable in that because he was black, he had no college or formal medical training.
Re: (Score:1)
Methodist Hospital announced, without specifying the cause of death.
Why do I have a feeling he died from a heart attack?
It is certainly possible. At that age, it isn't uncommon for the major organs to give out. According the summary, he has had trouble with his heart before, so I wouldn't be surprised at all.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Troll.
Dr DeBakey deserves a far better send off than the racist ramblings of a coward like you. May he be happy wherever he wound up from here.
Re: (Score:1, Redundant)
or he would have been killing infidels on the operating table because muslims are liars and murderers.
I would have missed that (because it had such a low rating), if cailith1970 hadn't pointed it out.
That really is disgraceful racism. It's not clever or cute or funny. That's crude and stupid even by the tolerant standards of Slashdot.
There's no place in science or medicine for racism. It's not enough to ignore it. We have to let people know that their behavior is unacceptable.
When (if) you grow up and become a functioning member of society, you'll realize that.