DeBakey, Michael (Ellis)

(born Sept. 7, 1908, Lake Charles, La., U.S.) U.S. cardiovascular surgeon. He received an M.D. from Tulane University. In 1932 he devised the “roller pump,” an essential component of the heart-lung machine. His work with the U.S. Surgeon General's office led to the development of mobile army surgical hospitals (MASH units) and the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital research system. He also developed an efficient method of grafting frozen blood vessels to correct aortic aneurysms and pioneered the use of plastic tubing instead of grafts (1953). He was the first to perform a successful coronary artery bypass, and in 1966 he was the first to insert a mechanical device into the chest to assist the heart. He edited the Yearbook of Surgery (1958–70) and served on many medical editorial boards. His many awards include the Medal of Freedom and membership in the Academy of Athens.

DeBakey, Michael (Ellis) (1908– ) cardiologist, surgeon; born in Lake Charles, La. While he was still a medical student, he invented a major component of the heart-lung machines (1932) that made open heart surgery possible. He joined the faculty at Tulane University in 1937. During World War II he helped the Surgeon General develop mobile army surgical hospitals (MASH units). He returned to Tulane for two years and then joined Baylor University's medical school (1948). In the early 1950s, he became proficient in treating aortic aneurysms by replacing the section with a graft of blood vessels. He performed the first of 12 heart transplants (1968); the procedure was stopped until 1984 when controls on organ rejection were improved. He became president (1969) and then chancellor (1978) of the Baylor College of Medicine (Waco, Texas). A prolific writer, he published The Living Heart (1977) and The Living Heart Diet (1984).