What is Michael DeBakey's birthday?

Answer 1

Born in Lake Charles, Louisiana the young Michael Ellis DeBakey had a dream of being an engineer one day but one small decision of his turned around his life and the whole world. He decided to be a surgeon.

He received his B. S., M. S., and M. D. degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha (A.O.A.) honorary medical society. He was the subject of a video in the National Library of Medicine on A.O.A. Leaders in American Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in surgery at Charity Hospital in New Orleans and his surgical fellowships at the University of Strasbourg, France, under Professor René Leriche and at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, under Professor Martin Kirschner. From 1937 to 1948, he was a faculty member of the Tulane School of Medicine Department of Surgery. From 1942 to 1946, he was on military leave as a member of the Surgical Consultants' Division in the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army, and in 1945 he became its Director and received the U. S. Army Legion of Merit. He helped develop the mobile army surgical hospital (MASH) units and later helped establish the Veteran's Administration Medical Center Research System. He served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine from 1948 to 1993, as President from 1969 to 1979, and as Chancellor from 1979 to January, 1996, when he became Chancellor Emeritus. He was also a Distinguished Service Professor in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor and Director of the DeBakey Heart Center for research and public education at Baylor and Methodist Hospital.

Research has always been a large part of Dr. DeBakey's life. Gifted with an inquiring mind and a desire to write about his observations, Dr. DeBakey was deeply involved in research related to all aspects of cardiothoracic and vascular surgery. While in medical school and actively engaged in medical research, Dr. DeBakey invented the roller pump, which became an essential component of the heart-lung machine and thus helped launch the era of open-heart surgery. With his mentor, Dr. Alton Ochsner, he postulated, in 1939, a strong link between smoking and carcinoma of the lung. He has devised many new operations, devices, and more than 50 surgical instruments for improvement of patient care.

In 1952, he was the first in this country to perform successful excision and graft replacement of aneurysms of the aorta and obstructive lesions of the major arteries. In 1953, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy, thereby establishing the field of surgery for strokes.

On January 5, 1953, he performed the first successful removal and graft replacement of a fusiform aneurysm of the thoracic aorta, and in 1954, the first successful resection and graft replacement of an aneurysm of the distal aortic arch and upper descending thoracic aorta. In that same year, he performed the first successful resection and graft replacement of an aneurysm of the ascending aorta and the first successful resection of a dissecting aneurysm of the thoracic aorta. In 1955, Dr. DeBakey was the first to perform a successful resection of an aneurysm of the thoracoabdominal portion of the aorta between the chest and abdomen. In 1958, to counteract narrowing of an artery caused by an endarterectomy, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful patch-graft angioplasty. In 1964, Dr. DeBakey was the first to perform a successful aortocoronary artery bypass. In 1968, he led a team of surgeons in a historic multiple transplantation procedure in which the heart, kidneys, and one lung of a donor were transplanted into four recipients. He has operated on more than 60,000 patients in Houston alone. His patients include princes and paupers, celebrities and unknowns the world over, all of whom receive the same high standards of excellence in healthcare. An impassioned patient's advocate, he has continuously urged the support of medical research as the means of discovering improved methods of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and cure.

Dr. DeBakey's early research with the artificial heart and his testimony before Congress in 1963 led to the first Federal support of the artificial heart program. A pioneer in the development of an artificial heart and cardiac assistors, he performed, in 1966, the first successful human implantation of a partial artificial heart that he devised - a left ventricular assist device. He also conceived the idea of lining a bypass pump and its connections with Dacron velour, a concept he later applied to the Dacron arterial grafts he had developed. The DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device (VAD), created in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is a miniature device implanted into the heart to increase blood flow for those suffering from congestive heart failure.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Dr. DeBakey Chairman of the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke. As a result of the Commission's recommendations, regional medical libraries and specialized medical research centers supported by the National Institutes of Health were established at strategic geographic sites throughout the country to expedite dissemination of medical information. He has worked tirelessly in multitudinous capacities to improve the national and international standards of healthcare. His numerous government consultative appointments have included an unprecedented three terms on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Advisory Council of the National Institutes of Health and the chairmanship of the National Library of Medicine.

Dr. DeBakey did not, however, limit his work as a medical statesman to the United States. He has served as a consultant to countries in Europe, the Eastern bloc, and the Middle and Far East, where he has helped establish health-care systems, including cardiovascular surgery programs, in countries throughout the globe, such as Belgium, China, Egypt, England, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Yugoslavia, and in Australia, New Zealand, and Central and South American countries.

Training successive generations of surgeons is perhaps one of Dr. DeBakey's greatest legacies. He has trained myriad surgeons in his more than 50-year career in academic medicine, and he created the fellowships and residency programs that are still thriving in the Michael E. DeBakey Department of Surgery today. He established the General Surgery Residency, the Fellowship in Trauma and Critical Care, the Thoracic Surgery Residency, the Cardiopulmonary Perfusion Program, the Fellowship in Cardiovascular Surgery, the Pediatric Surgery Residency, the Fellowship in Cardiac Transplantation, and the Vascular Surgery Residency. Many of his residents and fellows have gone on to successful careers as chairmen and directors of their own academic surgical programs in this country and abroad. In 1976, in recognition of his dedication to the training of young physicians, his students from throughout the world founded the Michael E. DeBakey International Cardiovascular Surgical Society, later named the Michael E. DeBakey International Surgical Society. The organization, comprising primarily his former students and residents, conducts international medical symposia and confers the Michael E. DeBakey Award biennially.

Recognizing the need to attract young people, including minority students, to the health professions early in their schooling and to provide them with a strong academic foundation, Dr. DeBakey, as President of Baylor College of Medicine in 1972, became the driving force behind the establishment of the High School for the Health Professions of the Houston Independent School District. He remained one of the strongest supporters of the School, whose enrollment has grown from 45 to more than 720 of Houston's most promising secondary school students. In 1996, the Harris County Independent School District renamed the School for the Health Professions the Michael E. DeBakey High School for the Health Professions. Dr. DeBakey also established the Michael E. DeBakey Summer Surgery Program in the Baylor Department of Surgery to give premedical students an opportunity to get some practical experience in medicine.

Dr. DeBakey was a member of the most distinguished medical societies, having served as President of many of them. He was a founder and the first Editor of the Journal of Vascular Surgery. He was Editor of the Year Book of General Surgery for fourteen years, and has served, on the Editorial Boards of numerous eminent medical and surgical journals, including the Annals of Surgery, Surgery, Journal of Cardiovascular Surgery, Circulation, Journal of Vascular Surgery, and The Yearbook of Surgery.

Dr. DeBakey has received more than 50 honorary degrees from prestigious colleges and universities, as well as innumerable national and international accolades and awards from educational institutions, professional and civic organizations, and governments. He has received honors from many Heads-of-State throughout the world, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction in 1969 from President Lyndon Johnson, the highest honor a United States citizen can receive, and the National Medal of Science in 1987 from President Ronald Reagan. In 2000, the Library of Congress awarded him its Living Legend Award, and in 2001, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded him its Invention of the Year Award for the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device. In tribute to his outstanding contributions and dedication, numerous awards, institutes, scholarships, and facilities bear his name in the United States and abroad.

He has been honored by the governments of Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, Greece, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Lebanon, Panama, Peru, Portugal, and Yugoslavia. In May, 1978, a 300-lb. bronze bust of Dr. DeBakey, commissioned by King Leopold and Princess Lilian of Belgium and sculpted by the late George Muguet of Paris, was unveiled. At the ceremony Princess Lilian said: "He has provided national and international leadership in fighting cardiovascular disease, and this bust will be a symbol of hope and encouragement to all who come here." The bust stands in the lobby of Methodist Hospital in Houston. In 1974, Dr. DeBakey was honored by the Academy of Medical Sciences of the U.S.S.R. as its first American Foreign Member. In 1992, Dr. DeBakey was inducted into the Academy of Athens, a society of scholars founded by the Greek philosopher Plato. Although membership is generally restricted to Greeks who have made exceptional contributions to the arts, science, or literature, an exception was made in Dr. DeBakey's case, as it was for Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill, in view of their extraordinary achievements. He has received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Medical Films, American Heart Association, Children Uniting Nations, Encyclopedia Britannica, Foundation for Biomedical Research, International College of Angiology, International Health and Medical Film Festival, Research! America and Tulane Medical Alumni Association. Other major awards include the:

· U.S. Army Legion of Merit (1945)

· American Medical Association Hektoen Gold Medal (1954 and 1970)

· Rudolph Matas Award in Vascular Surgery (1954)

· International Society of Surgery Distinguished Service Award (1958)

and Leriche Award (1959)

· American Medical Association Distinguished Service Award (1959)

· American Medical Association Billings Gold Medal Exhibit Award (1967)

· American Heart Association Gold Heart Award (1968)

· Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences 50th Anniversary Jubilee Medal (1973)

· Veterans of Foreign Wars Commander-in-Chief's Medal and Citation (1980)

· American Surgical Association Distinguished Service Award (1981)

· Academy of Surgical Research Markowitz Award (1988)

· Association of American Medical Colleges Special Recognition Award (1988)

· American Legion Distinguished Service Award (1990)

· Premio Giuseppe Corradi Award for Surgery and Scientific Research (1997)

· Russian Military Medical Academy, Boris Petrovsky International Surgeons Award and First Laureate of the Boris Petrovsky Gold Medal (1997)

· John P. McGovern Compleat Physician Award (1999)

· Russian Academy of Sciences Foreign Member (1999)

· Texas Senate and House of Representatives, Adoption of resolutions honoring Dr. DeBakey for 50 years of medical practice in Texas (1999)

· American Medical Association Virtual Mentor Award (2000)

· American Philosophical Society Jonathan Rhoads Medal (2000)

· Library of Congress Bicentennial Living Legend Award (2000)

With his keen intellect, professional ingenuity, personal integrity and selfless devotion to humanity, Women's International Center is so proud to present the International Samaritan Living Legacy Award to a living legend and a genuine healer of the human heart.

Dr. DeBakey was a true Renaissance man, with interests and knowledge ranging across a broad spectrum of disciplines beyond medicine, including history, philosophy, ethics, literature, art, and music, as well as socioeconomic and cultural fields of study. His keen intellect, ingenuity, personal integrity, compassion, and selfless devotion to the service of humanity have made him a true legend in his own time.

Answer 2

Michael DeBakey was born on September 7, 1908.