1. Michael Ellis DeBakey was an American general and cardiovascular surgeon, scientist and medical educator who became Chairman of the Department of Surgery, President, and Chancellor of Baylor College of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.
Michael DeBakey subsequently attended Tulane University for his premedical course and Tulane University School of Medicine to study medicine.
Michael DeBakey received a number of awards, including the Albert Lasker Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of Science, and the Congressional Gold Medal.
Michael DeBakey was born Michel Dabaghi on September 7,1908 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Young Michael DeBakey helped out with manual chores and keeping the books.
Michael DeBakey could sew his own shirt by the age of 10.
Michael DeBakey learned French and German and participated in a Boy Scout troop.
Michael DeBakey won awards for vegetables he had grown in his garden.
Michael DeBakey attended Tulane University, where he enrolled in a six-year program that combined undergraduate and medical school.
Between 1933 and 1935, Michael DeBakey remained in New Orleans to complete his internship and residency in surgery at Charity Hospital, and in 1935, he received a MS for his research on stomach ulcers.
Michael DeBakey joined the faculty of Baylor University College of Medicine in 1948, serving as chairman of the surgical department until 1993.
Michael DeBakey was president of the college from 1969 to 1979, and served as its chancellor from 1979 to January 1996, when he was named chancellor emeritus.
Michael DeBakey was Olga Keith Wiess and Distinguished Service Professor in the Michael E DeBakey Department of Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and director of the DeBakey Heart Center for research and public education at Baylor College of Medicine and Houston Methodist Hospital.
Michael DeBakey was a member of the medical advisory committee of the Hoover Commission and was chairman of the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke during the Johnson Administration.
Michael DeBakey worked in numerous capacities to improve national and international standards of health care.
Michael DeBakey hired surgeon Denton Cooley at Baylor College of Medicine in 1951.
In 1980 Michael DeBakey was a consultant in the care of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the exiled Shah of Iran, who was in the terminal stages of lymphoma.
Michael DeBakey subsequently collaborated with a research associate from the Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science to create a knitting machine for making grafts.
Michael DeBakey was among the earliest surgeons to perform coronary artery bypass surgery.
In 1958, to counteract narrowing of an artery caused by an endarterectomy, Michael DeBakey performed the first successful patch-graft angioplasty.
Michael DeBakey founded and chaired the Foundation for Biomedical Research, whose goal is to promote public understanding and support for animal research.
Michael DeBakey antagonized animal rights and animal welfare advocates who oppose the use of animals in the development of medical treatment for humans when he claimed that the "future of biomedical research; and ultimately human health" would be compromised if shelters stopped turning over surplus animals for medical research.
Michael DeBakey continued to practice medicine until his death in 2008 at the age of 99.
Michael DeBakey operated on more than 60,000 patients, including several heads of state.
On 29 April 1999, Michael DeBakey oversaw an aorta-coronary bypass surgery of Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev in Cleveland, Ohio during Aliyev's visit to the United States.
Years prior, Michael DeBakey had pioneered the surgical treatment that now bears his name to treat this condition.
Michael DeBakey initially resisted the surgical option, but as his health deteriorated and Michael DeBakey became unresponsive, the surgical team opted to proceed with surgical intervention.
Michael DeBakey became a member of numerous learned societies, gained 36 honorary degrees and was the recipient of hundreds of awards.
Michael DeBakey received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969.
Michael DeBakey was a Health Care Hall of Famer, a Lasker Luminary and a recipient of the United Nations Lifetime Achievement Award and the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction.
Michael DeBakey 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.
Michael DeBakey has been described as a "tough taskmaster" by colleagues and trainees.
Michael DeBakey died from natural causes at Houston Methodist Hospital on July 11,2008, at the age of 99.
Michael DeBakey was granted ground burial at Arlington National Cemetery by the Secretary of the Army.
On January 21,2009, DeBakey became the first posthumous recipient of the Denton A Cooley Leadership Award.
Michael DeBakey had a role in establishing the Michael E DeBakey Heart Institute at the Hays Medical Center in Kansas.
Several atraumatic vascular surgical clamps and forceps that Michael DeBakey introduced bear his name.
Michael DeBakey's writings are reflected in his authorship or co-authorship in more than 1,300 published medical articles, chapters, and books on various aspects of surgery, medicine, health, medical research, and medical education, as well as ethical, socio-economic and philosophic discussion in those fields.
Michael DeBakey worked on his first book with Gilbert Wheeler Beebe after World War II:.