I came across his name while studying, Classification of Dissections of the Aorta - DeBakey I, DeBakey II, DeBakey III and just got curious to know more about him and found some interesting facts. Here, they are:
Michael Ellis DeBakey (born as Michel Dabaghi) September 7, 1908 is a world renowned surgeon, innovator, medical educator, and international medical statesman. DeBakey is currently chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and director of The DeBakey Heart Center of Baylor and the Methodist Hospital.
Michael Ellis DeBakey was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Lebanese-American immigrants Shaker and Raheeja DeBakey.
On May 28, 1965, Time Magazine featured Dr. DeBakey on its cover for his pioneering work and innovations in cardiovascular surgery and the artificial heart. His achievements have also been cited in Time Books’ Great Events of the Twentieth Century (1999) and many other prestigious national and international volumes of outstanding contributors to society.
Both the DeBakey High School for Health Professions and the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston in the Texas Medical Center in Houston are named after him. Several atraumatic vascular surgical clamps and forceps that he introduced also bear his name.
DeBakey still practices medicine to this day. In 2008, Michael DeBakey will be 100 years old. His contributions to the field of medicine will have spanned the better part of 75 years. He's a Health Care Hall of Famer and a Lasker Luminary. He's a recipient of The United Nations Lifetime Achievement Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction and The National Medal of Science. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Foundation for Biomedical Research and in 2000 was cited as a "Living Legend" by the Library of Congress. On 23rd April, 2008 he received the Congressional Gold Medal from President George W. Bush.
On December 31, 2005, at age 97, DeBakey suffered an aortic dissection, the very condition that his pioneering procedure was designed to treat. He was hospitalized at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. Dr. DeBakey initially resisted the surgical option, but as his health deteriorated, the Houston Methodist Hospital Ethics Committee approved the operation; on February 9–February 10 he became the oldest patient ever to undergo the surgery for which he was responsible. The operation lasted seven hours. After a complicated postoperative course that required eight months in the hospital, at a cost of over one million dollars, Dr. DeBakey was released in September 2006 and has returned to good health. He was present at Baylor College of Medicine for the groundbreaking opening of the new Michael E. DeBakey Library and Museum on October 18, 2006.
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