Dr. Michael DeBakey of Houston was a legendary cardiovascular surgeon, educator, scientist, and international medical statesman. He is remembered today for his pioneering work in surgical techniques for treatment of heart defects and diseases. Dr. DeBakey’s professional expertise influenced U.S. and international health care policy. Because of his extraordinary legacy, cardiologist Dr. Paul Dudley White called DeBakey “the Texas Tornado.”
Michael Ellis DeBakey was born September 7, 1908, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. His parents, Shaker Morris and Raheeja Debagi, were Lebanese Christian immigrants who left Turkey because of political unrest. They spoke only French and settled in Cajun Country in Louisiana where it was spoken. Debaghi was later anglicized to DeBakey.
Michael was the eldest of five children. His mother was a seamstress who taught sewing classes. From her, DeBakey learned to crochet and knit. He could sew his own shirts when he was 10 years old. Later, after he became a doctor, his sewing skills served him well when DeBakey used his wife’s sewing machine to produce the first artificial arterial Dacron grafts to repair blood vessels.
DeBakey’s father was a businessman who owned several drug stores. DeBakey was inspired to become a doctor after talking to physicians while working in his father’s pharmacy. DeBakey helped keep the books for his father. But medicine was only one of DeBakey’s interests. He was a Boy Scout and won awards for the vegetables he grew in his father’s garden. He also studied biology, French, German, and science. Michael earned his B.S., M.D., and M.S. degrees from Tulane School of Medicine in New Orleans. He also completed fellowships at the University of Strasburg, France and the University of Heidelburg, Germany.
During World War II, DeBakey volunteered for military service. He served in the Surgical Consultants Division of the Army Surgeon General’s Office. His work led to the development of the Mobile Auxiliary Surgical Hospital (MASH) which provided surgical care for wounded soldiers near the front lines. The MASH units, first deployed in 1943, were used in World War II and the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts.
In 1937 DeBakey married Diana Cooper and they had four sons. Diana died in 1972. Three years later, he married German actress Katrin Fehlhaber. They had a daughter.
Among DeBakey’s innovations in his 75-year career were successfully performing the first:
- Removal of a blockage of the carotid artery, which is the main artery of the neck that supplies blood to the brain.
- Resection and graft of an aneurism.
- Coronary bypass using the large vein in the leg.
- Open heart surgery to be broadcast overseas by satellite.
- Use of the left ventricular bypass pump.
DeBakey’s expertise was respected around the world. In 1996 he was a consultant to the team that performed quintuple coronary bypass surgery on Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
DeBakey worked with many talented doctors at the Texas Medical Center, but it was his relationship with Dr. Denton Cooley that gained unwanted attention for both men. They had worked closely together, but became estranged after Cooley in 1969 took an artificial heart from DeBakey’s lab and implanted it into a patient. DeBakey said Cooley’s action was “a theft, a betrayal, unethical and ‘a childish act’ to claim a medical first.” Cooley said he was making a desperate, if ultimately unsuccessful, effort to save a life. Their estrangement lasted many years, but they reconciled before DeBakey’s death. Cooley died in 2016.
DeBakey worked at the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, and both Baylor University College of Medicine and The Cardiovascular Research and Training Center at Methodist Hospital in Houston. He performed over 60,000 surgeries during his career, the last one being when he was 90 years old.
DeBakey was also a prolific writer who shared his expertise with others. He published over 1,600 articles, books, and book chapters covering a wide range of medical topics. DeBakey’s awards included the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Congressional Gold Medal. He was presented with over 50 honorary degrees.
DeBakey died on July 11, 2008, in Methodist Hospital, two months before his 100th birthday.
