Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D. (born September 7, 1908, Lake Charles, Louisiana, United States) is a pioneering cardiovascular surgeon and researcher. His motto is "Strive for nothing less than excellence."

His parents were Lebanese Christian immigrants. He received his Bachelor's and M.D. degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans.

In 1937, DeBakey joined the faculty of Tulane. He volunteered for military service during World War II, becoming the Director of the Surgical Consultants' Division in the United States Army Surgeon General's Office. During his term, he proposed a series of mobile field medical units called Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals or M.A.S.H.s that allowed experienced medical service that could be accessed quickly by the wounded.

In 1953, DeBakey performed the first successful carotid endarterectomy.

In 1963, DeBakey was the first to successfully implant an artificial heart.

In 1965, Time Magazine featured Dr. DeBakey on its cover for his pioneering work and innovations in cardiovascular surgery and the artificial heart.

In 1969, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. During the same year, the Baylor College of Medicine separated from Baylor University under his direction.

In 1971, he was placed on the master list of Nixon political opponents.

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Science.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin called DeBakey "a magician of the heart" after Debakey and a team of American cardiothoracic surgeons, including George Noon, supervised a quintuple bypass surgery performed on him by Russian surgeons 1996.

Both the DeBakey High School for Health Professions and the Michael E. DeBakey Veteran's Affairs Hospital in the Texas Medical Center in Houston are named after him. An atraumatic vascular surgical clamp that he introduced also bears his name.

On February 10, 2006, Michael DeBakey was hospitalized at the age of 97 at The Methodist Hospital in Houston for an aortic aneurysm.

Awards

• Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy of Medical Films
• American Heart Association (AHA)
• Children Uniting Nations
• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Foundation for Biomedical Research
• International College of Angiology
• International Health and Medical Film Festival
• Research! America
• Tulane Medical Alumni Association
• 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)
• 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)
• Villanova University Mendel Medal Award (2001)
• Houston Hall of Fame (2001)
• NASA Invention of the Year Award (2001)

External links

• DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine
• Methodist DeBakey Heart Center
• Lasker Luminary Dr. Michael DeBakey

American physicians | Lebanese Americans | People from Texas | 1908 births | Living people

Michael Ellis DeBakey | Michael Ellis de Bakey | Michael DeBakey | Michael E. DeBakey