USSFCU Corner

In honor of American Heart Month Kathy Dalfrey, Senior VP/Chief Financial Officer, United States Senate Federal Credit Union, shares a special connection she has with Doctor Michael Ellis DeBakey, the legendary cardiologist who preformed her open heart surgery when she was just 3 years old.

Diagnosed at birth with atrial septal defect, a hole in the wall that divides the chambers of the heart, Kathy’s parents were told she would need open heart surgery to live passed 13. Today, over 47 years later, Kathy enjoys a healthy and active lifestyle with no restrictions. She has completed over 15 half-marathons and loves to scuba dive. All made possible by through the passion of one surgeon whose dedication left a lasting impact on the world of heart health.

A pioneer of cardiovascular surgery, it is said that no person has done more to advance the surgical treatment of the heart and blood vessels than Dr. Michael DeBakey. The medical world should have suspected they had a ground breaking pioneer in the field when as only a medical student, Michael DeBakey crafted the “roller pump”, a pump that could deliver blood from a donor to a patient. This pump became part of the first heart-lung machine.

Dr. DeBakeys lists of firsts is quite long. In the 1950s, he developed a tubing used around the world to replace and repair blood vessels.  A treatment he applied to prevent recurring strokes, and kidney failure, and to restore circulation to limbs that might otherwise have been amputated.

He used a cadaver graft to repair an aortic aneurysm in 1952, and did the first successful carotid endarterectomy in 1953. In 1963, he made history by installing an artificial pump to assist a patient's damaged heart.

In 1964 he completed the first successful coronary bypass operation and in 1966, he was the first to use a left-ventricular assist device, one version of which now carries his name. In 1968, his team was the first to use four organs—a heart, two kidneys, and one lung—from one donor into several recipients, preforming the first multiple-organ transplant.

He was also one of the first to identify a connection between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.

Dr. DeBakey began his career at Baylor in 1948 when he became chair of the new medical school's department of surgery. One of his first accomplishments there was to develop the Veteran's Administration hospital in Houston, which is now named for him. He went on to become president of the college of medicine in 1969, and chancellor in 1978. DeBakey was the chancellor emeritus of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, director of The Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, and senior attending surgeon of The Methodist Hospital in Houston Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, where DeBakey spent his career.

A notoriously demanding perfectionist in the operating room, DeBakey was calm and attentive with patients and their families, and routinely did post-operative rounds late into the evenings. A gifted surgeon, Dr. DeBakey was recognized around the world by those whose lives he had touched.

“Anyone who approached him, whether a member of royalty, a military veteran, or any person he met in his daily life, found him ready to listen to a personal story about someone he had helped” —Peter Traber,President of Baylor College of Medicine, Texas, where DeBakey spent his career.

Despite the demands of surgery, teaching, and administrative duties, DeBakey, who rarely slept more than 5 hours per night, also devoted substantial time to surgical research. He published over 1600 articles and books during his career, covering topics from his early studies of lung cancer, to battle injuries and military medicine, through every aspect of cardiovascular surgery, artificial hearts and heart transplants.

DeBakey was also able contribute his medical expertise to public policy. DeBakey advised many U.S. presidents on health care policy. He played a key in establishing the National Library of Medicine, and played an important role in founding Medicare, despite the program’s unpopularity with the American Medical Association. DeBakey also helped establish health care systems, including cardiovascular surgery programs in country’s outside the U.S.

DeBakey's outstanding accomplishments earned him many awards and honors. These include the U.S. Army's Legion of Merit in 1945; the American Medical Association's Distinguished Service Award in 1959; the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969; the National Medal of Science in 1987; the United Nations Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999; and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2008. He has received more than 50 honorary doctorates, and was also commemorated in the naming of departments, laboratories, and buildings at Baylor and elsewhere.

DeBakey continued doing surgery until he was 90, and estimated that during the course of his career, he had performed over 60,000 operations and trained several thousand surgeons. In 2006, he suffered a dissecting aneurysm, which was repaired by surgeons he had trained, using the techniques he had originated more than 50 years before. He made a good recovery and died two years later, on July 11, 2008, of natural causes.

DeBakey left an astonishing legacy of surgical innovation, medical education and research, and health care policy, as well as thousands of patients whose lives were saved by his skills.