[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 474 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]
S.474
One Hundred Tenth Congress
of the
United States of America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday,
the fourth day of January, two thousand and seven
An Act
To award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., was born on September 7, 1908,
in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Shaker and Raheeja DeBakey.
(2) Dr. DeBakey, at the age of 23 and still a medical student,
reported a major invention, a roller pump for blood transfusions,
which later became a major component of the heart-lung machine used
in the first successful open-heart operation.
(3) Even though Dr. DeBakey had already achieved a national
reputation as an authority on vascular disease and had a promising
career as a surgeon and teacher, he volunteered for military
service during World War II, joining the Surgeon General's staff
and rising to the rank of Colonel and Chief of the Surgical
Consultants Division.
(4) As a result of this first-hand knowledge of military
service, Dr. DeBakey made numerous recommendations for the proper
staged management of war wounds, which led to the development of
mobile army surgical hospitals or ``MASH'' units, and earned Dr.
DeBakey the Legion of Merit in 1945.
(5) After the war, Dr. DeBakey proposed the systematic medical
follow-up of veterans and recommended the creation of specialized
medical centers in different areas of the United States to treat
wounded military personnel returning from war, and from this
recommendation evolved the Veterans Affairs Medical Center System
and the establishment of the Commission on Veterans Medical
Problems of the National Research Council.
(6) In 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the Baylor University College
of Medicine, where he developed the first surgical residency
program in the city of Houston, and today, guided by Dr. DeBakey's
vision, the College is one of the most respected health science
centers in the Nation.
(7) In 1953, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful
procedures to treat patients who suffered aneurysms leading to
severe strokes, and he later developed a series of innovative
surgical techniques for the treatment of aneurysms enabling
thousands of lives to be saved in the years ahead.
(8) In 1964, Dr. DeBakey triggered the most explosive era in
modern cardiac surgery, when he performed the first successful
coronary bypass, once again paving the way for surgeons worldwide
to offer hope to thousands of patients who might otherwise succumb
to heart disease.
(9) Two years later, Dr. DeBakey made medical history again,
when he was the first to successfully use a partial artificial
heart to solve the problems of a patient who could not be weaned
from a heart-lung machine following open-heart surgery.
(10) In 1968, Dr. DeBakey supervised the first successful
multi-organ transplant, in which a heart, both kidneys, and lung
were transplanted from a single donor into 4 separate recipients.
(11) In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. DeBakey
to the position of Chairman of the President's Commission on Heart
Disease, Cancer and Stroke, leading to the creation of Regional
Medical Programs established ``to encourage and assist in the
establishment of regional cooperative arrangements among medical
schools, research institutions, and hospitals, for research and
training''.
(12) In the mid-1960s, Dr. DeBakey pioneered the field of
telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart surgery to
be transmitted overseas by satellite.
(13) In 1969, Dr. DeBakey was elected the first President of
Baylor College of Medicine.
(14) In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson bestowed on Dr.
DeBakey the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, and in
1985, President Ronald Reagan conferred on him the National Medal
of Science.
(15) Working with NASA engineers, he refined existing
technology to create the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, one-
tenth the size of current versions, which may eliminate the need
for heart transplantation in some patients.
SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL.
(a) Presentation Authorized.--The Speaker of the House of
Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate shall make
appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on behalf of the
Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, to Michael Ellis
DeBakey, M.D., in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to
the Nation.
(b) Design and Striking.--For purposes of the presentation referred
to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred to in
this Act as the ``Secretary'') shall strike a gold medal with suitable
emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary.
SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS.
The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the gold
medal struck pursuant to section 2 under such regulations as the
Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost
thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, and
overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal.
SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS.
(a) National Medals.--The medals struck pursuant to this Act are
national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, United States
Code.
(b) Numismatic Items.--For purposes of sections 5134 and 5136 of
title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under this Act shall be
considered to be numismatic items.
SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE.
(a) Authority To Use Fund Amounts.--There is authorized to be
charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund such
amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs of the medals struck
pursuant to this Act.
(b) Proceeds of Sale.--Amounts received from the sale of duplicate
bronze medals authorized under section 3 shall be deposited into the
United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.
Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.