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| Vol. 24, No. 2 |
| February 1, 2002 |
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An Affair of the Heart
by RONDA WENDLER Texas Medical Center News When the newest building in the Texas Medical Center opened its doors to the public in a Jan. 17 dedication ceremony attended by more than 500 guests, Dr. Denton A. Cooley felt the same sense of pride that a new father feels when sharing pictures of his child. And well he should. The building, the new home of the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, represents the culmination of a long-awaited dream come true for Dr. Cooley, after whom the facility is named. "This goes straight to my heart ... I can’t imagine feeling more gratified than I do today," said the famed heart surgeon, who founded the Texas Heart Institute back in 1962 to advance research and education in heart disease. Today, he continues to serve as the Institute’s president and surgeon in chief, as well as chief of cardiovascular surgery at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. "I’m just glad I’m here to attend the party. Usually, you have to die before anybody gets around to naming a building after you," quipped the 81-year-old surgeon, who, during the course of his lifetime, has performed an impressive series of medical firsts, including the first open-heart surgery in the southern United States in 1956 and the first successful heart transplant in the United States in 1968. Under Dr. Cooley’s leadership, the Texas Heart Institute and its clinical partner, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, have become viewed as the créme de la créme in cardiac care, and have been ranked among the top 10 heart centers in the nation for 11 consecutive years in U.S. News & World Report’s "America’s Best Hospitals" survey. Dr. Cooley founded the Texas Heart Institute as a chartered, nonprofit organization located in St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital. The Institute’s mission is to conduct research and education in cardiovascular disease, while its clinical partner, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, provides the patient care component. Dr. Cooley likens the relationship between the two institutions to a human heart. "The heart is actually two pumps working together, each supporting the other, much in the same way that St. Luke’s and the Texas Heart Institute support each other. It’s an ideal partnership," he explained. The relationship is forever expanding and growing stronger, as evidenced by the Texas Heart Institute’s move into its new building – formally named "The Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital-The Denton A. Cooley Building" – on the corner of Bertner and Bates, adjacent to St. Luke’s Hospital. Not one to seek the spotlight, the mild-mannered Dr. Cooley is quick to credit his colleagues with the Institute’s success, and deflect attention away from himself. "I’m just a country boy, lucky enough to be surrounded by people who are good at what they do," he said. Michael Jhin, president and CEO of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System, says that while living legends who have achieved Cooley-like status may not always be easy to live with, Dr. Cooley is an exception. "No runaway ego here. He goes out of his way to give credit where credit is due, and makes the Texas Heart Institute more than a one-man show. He’s just a pleasure." And while Dr. Cooley is best known for pioneering many of the surgical techniques used in cardiovascular operating rooms today, he has always had a keen eye for invention as well, and is continually looking for ways to make procedures easier and more efficient. Over the years, he has been involved in designing and developing more than 200 surgical products, including the Cooley-Cutter valve, an aortic valve designed to replace diseased heart valves. A variety of surgical scissors, clamps, retractors, and disposable surgical kits are based on his designs, as well as head lamps with magnifying lenses that make it easier for surgeons to see the tiny blood vessels that must be cut, then reconnected, during vascular surgery. True to his native-Texan entrepreneurial spirit, Dr. Cooley, a born-and-bred Houstonian, designed the first-ever packaged pricing plan for cardiac surgeries, recognizing that most patients could never afford the exorbitant fees charged for cardiac surgeries. "They call me the Sam Walton of surgery, and that’s great. I take it as a compliment," he said. Dr. Cooley and his colleagues at the Texas Heart Institute enjoy the unique distinction of having performed more open-heart operations than any other facility in the world. To date, they are credited with more than 100,000 open-heart surgeries, 800 transplant operations, 210,000 cardiac catheterizations, and 30,000 interventional procedures. Many former patients were in the audience the night of the Jan. 17 building dedication – a tribute that clearly pleased Dr. Cooley, who can, without prompting, recall the smallest of details about past patients. Over the years, the Texas Heart Institute has participated in numerous clinical trials designed to test new creations in cardiac care, and is one of five test sites for the current trial of the AbioCor artificial heart. Dr. O.H. Frazier, chief of cardiopulmonary transplantation and director of surgical research at the Texas Heart Institute, and chief of transplant service at St. Luke’s, has led more than a decade of studies at the Institute that have resulted in the heart’s completion. Today, Dr. Cooley continues his practice, but has cut his work days back from 16 hours to 12 hours. For many years, he dealt with 10 to 12 cases per day, but now he takes only the most difficult of cases. To make the minutes in his busy day count, he usually eats lunch at his desk – soup and frozen vanilla yogurt are his favorites. At 6 feet, 4 inches and185 pounds, he maintains the same slim physique he had as an all-star basketball player at The University of Texas in Austin, where he helped lead his team to the Southwest Conference championship in 1939. In presenting the keynote address at the dedication of the Cooley Building, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison recited a shopping list of the many awards and honors Dr. Cooley has received during the course of his career, including the National Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award presented to Dr. Cooley by President Reagan for helping hundreds of thousands of Americans; the National Medal of Technology, presented to Dr. Cooley by President Clinton for his invention of more than 200 surgical devices that have raised the standard of surgical care; and the Rene Leriche Prize, the highest honor of the International Surgical Society. "If I start believing all these accolades, I might become a real menace," joked Dr. Cooley. His medical advice continues to be sought out by world leaders. Before selecting Richard Cheney as his running mate, then-Gov. George W. Bush solicited Dr. Cooley’s opinion on whether or not Cheney, who had a history of heart trouble, could withstand such a strenuous job. "He’s good to go," Dr. Cooley said. Standing informally before a larger-than-life statue of himself commissioned for the new Cooley Building, Dr. Cooley appeared a little sheepish about his image being cast in bronze. He recalled the good-natured ribbing of a colleague who said, when introducing Dr. Cooley at a conference, "I’ve lived in Houston so long, I can remember when Denton Cooley and Exxon were still Humble." "It’s hard to be humble on a day like today," Dr. Cooley conceded.
©2006 Texas Medical Center E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/02_01_02/page_01.html |