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Another DeBakey Milestone
Methodist Dedicates DeBakey Heart Center
By RONDA WENDLER
Texas Medical Center News
FUTURE PLANS-Dr. Michael DeBakey and Peter Butler, president and CEO of Methodist A HUMBLE HEART-Dr. Michael DeBakey, second from left, modestly acknowledges a standing ovation during dedication ceremonies for the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center. He is joined by Lynn Schroth, left, Methodist executive vice president, and Dr. Joseph Coselli, right, chief of cardiothoracic surgery at both the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center and Baylor College of Medicine. (Photo by Denny Angelle)
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He's saved tens of thousands of lives, is the chosen physician of world leaders and celebrities, and perhaps more than anyone else has reshaped the face of medicine for generations to come.
But when asked how he feels about being labeled a "living legend," Dr. Michael DeBakey assumes a modest, self-effacing countenance that defies his acclaim as one of the best heart surgeons in the world.
"I'm living ... the first half of that description is correct," he jokes.
From his earliest memory, Michael Ellis DeBakey wanted to be a doctor.
Maybe it's because as a boy, he was influenced by the doctors who regularly stopped by his father's drug store in Lake Charles, La. Or perhaps it's because during childhood, he was once miserably ill with malaria, his body shaking with chills and ravaged by high fever. After a doctor's house call, he felt better.
"All I know is that if I had to do it all over again, I'd do the same thing. It's very gratifying and satisfying ... there's nothing quite like it, except maybe the ministry," he said.
Whatever the impetus, Dr. DeBakey's foray into medicine has advanced cardiac care to levels that would be unreachable without his contributions.
To honor this medical pioneer, The Methodist Hospital's heart surgery center was dedicated in his name Feb. 19.
The DeBakey Heart Center, affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine, consists of 10 operating rooms, 154 acute care beds, 48 intensive care beds, and 30 beds for transplant candidates. The center is currently housed within Methodist Hospital, and renovation plans call for it to have a separate entrance and elevators.
Each year, Methodist performs more than 1,300 open-heart surgeries, 2,500 angioplasties and 6,000 catheterizations. During the last 10 years, more than 25 heart transplants have been completed.
As the center's namesake, Dr. DeBakey, who is also Chancellor Emeritus at Baylor, is the inventor of many of the current techniques used in cardiovascular medicine today.
While a medical student at New Orleans' Tulane University in the 1930s, he conceived, designed and built his first invention - the roller pump, a device that pumps blood throughout the body during open-heart surgery.
In the 1950s, he created the first artificial arteries for cardiac bypass surgery, fashioning them out of a new fabric called Dacron that he purchased at a local fabric store.
"I went to buy nylon, but they were sold out. The saleslady talked me into buying Dacron, which worked out nicely," he said.
Sitting at his wife's sewing machine, he stitched the first prototype, collaborating later with a textile engineer to refine his invention for human use.
"Those sewing lessons from my mother really paid off," joked Dr. DeBakey, who has been known to hem his own pants and make drapes for his house.
FUTURE PLANS-Dr. Michael DeBakey and Peter Butler, president and CEO of Methodist Health Care System, examine plans for the exterior entrance to the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center. The entryway, to be located between the Dunn Tower and Fondren-Brown Building of The Methodist Hospital, will house registration services and a museum. (Photo by Denny Angelle)
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During his 70-year career, Dr. DeBakey has conducted more than 60,000 surgeries and performed an unprecedented series of medical "firsts," including the first successful angioplasty in 1954, the first coronary bypass in 1964, and the first heart transplant in 1968. He pioneered techniques for the repair of deteriorating arteries and heart valves, and developed a method for surgically clearing arteries leading to the brain, which set the standard for today's surgical treatment of strokes.
Last summer at Methodist, the MicroMed DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, a miniature implantable pump that helps a failing heart circulate blood, was implanted in the first American patient. Since then, six more patients have received the device in Houston. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently gave permission to expand clinical trials of the pump to two more sites and 20 patients. The VAD, developed by Dr. DeBakey, surgeon George Noon and NASA engineers, is being tested as a stopgap while patients wait for a donor heart, but Dr. DeBakey hopes it will someday be used as a permanent heart implant.
At 92, Dr. DeBakey has the appearance of an active and vital 70-year-old man. Seemingly infatigable, he goes to bed at midnight and is up by 5 a.m. On airplanes, he can doze off within a minute of boarding and wake when the plane lands.
"That's how I avoid jetlag," he explained.
He eats modestly - a glass of juice for breakfast, no lunch, and fish and vegetables for dinner.
"Maybe I'll have a steak once a week," he said, which explains why he still fits into his World War II uniform.
He maintains an intense curiosity about all things medical, and is particularly interested in why atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries - the main culprit in heart disease, occurs.
One-third of the heart patients Dr. DeBakey has treated have developed heart disease despite the absence of the usual risk factors that lead to heart trouble - smoking, high blood pressure, or elevated cholesterol. Dr. DeBakey is intrigued, and wants to know why.
"We still can't explain why people without these risk factors are showing up with heart disease ... I think it would be a great accomplishment to find out the reason for this, and work on it," he said.
Asked about whether he would have liked to practice medicine 100 years ago, now, or 100 years in the future, Dr. DeBakey stated unequivocably, "Now ... today. The medical advances that are taking place, especially genetic advances, are unparalleled. This new century that we're in, it's going to be one of the most exciting of all time."
©2006 Texas Medical Center
E-Mail: tmcinfo@texmedctr.tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/03_15_01/page_01.html
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