[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 37 (Monday, March 5, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H2141-H2142]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      DR. MICHAEL ELLIS DeBAKEY, FATHER OF CARDIOVASCULAR SURGERY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor of the House tonight to 
ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 1154. This bill 
designates a Congressional Gold Medal for the famed Houston heart 
surgeon, Dr. Michael DeBakey. This legislation has been introduced by 
my good friend from Texas (Mr. Al Green), but I feel it is incumbent 
upon me, as one of the physicians of the House of Representatives, to 
come to the floor and talk about how important this award is for this 
individual because, truly, Dr. Michael DeBakey changed the face of 
medicine forever in this country. His motto, as always, was, ``Strive 
for nothing less than excellence,'' a motto that we might adopt in the 
House of Representatives today.
  Dr. DeBakey received his bachelor's and his M.D. degree from Tulane 
University in New Orleans. While in medical school, Dr. DeBakey 
invented what became known as the roller pump, later to become a major 
component in the heart-lung machine used in open-heart surgery. This 
was a groundbreaking development because previous mechanical pumps had 
destroyed so many red blood cells in the mechanical action of pumping. 
The roller pump was truly a visionary change that Dr. DeBakey 
popularized when he was still in medical school in the 1930s.
  He completed his internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. 
Charity Hospital, unfortunately, is no longer with us because of the 
ravages of Hurricane Katrina. Dr. DeBakey completed his residency in 
surgery at the University of Strasbourg, France and the University of 
Heidelberg in Germany.
  He volunteered for service in World War II and subsequently was named 
director of the Surgical Consultants' Division of the U.S. Surgeon 
General's Office. His work during that war led that office to the 
development of the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, so-called MASH units, 
those indeed that were popularized by movies and television shows back 
in the 1970s and were the forerunners of our forward surgical combat 
teams that have saved so many lives in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
  He helped establish the specialized medical and surgical center 
system for treating military personnel returning home from war, 
subsequently known as the Veterans' Administration Medical Center 
System.
  But it was at Methodist Hospital in Houston where Dr. DeBakey 
performed many of his groundbreaking surgeries, including the first 
removal of a carotid artery blockage in 1950, the year that I was born; 
the first coronary artery bypass graft in 1964; the first use of a 
ventricular assist device to pump blood and support a diseased heart in 
1966; and some of the first heart transplants in 1968 and 1969.
  He developed the self-contained miniaturized left ventricular assist 
device to pump blood for a diseased heart, something that is in use to 
this day. The techniques used to miniaturize the device's inner 
workings were developed with engineers working on the Nation's space 
program at nearby NASA.
  He served as an adviser to nearly every United States President for 
the last 50 years. Think of that, Mr. Speaker: The medical adviser to 
every United States President for the last 50 years, as well as to 
heads of state throughout the world. He traveled, famously, to Russia 
in 1996 to consult on the surgery for Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
  During his professional surgical career, he performed more than 
60,000 cardiovascular procedures and trained thousands of surgeons who 
practice around the world. His name is affixed to a number of 
organizations, centers for learning and projects devoted to medical 
education and health education for the general public.
  But think of this, Mr. Speaker, Dr. DeBakey also underwent an 
operation that was named for him. I picked up a copy of the New York 
Times last December and read a story about how Dr. DeBakey had 
undergone the surgery that he himself had described many years before. 
In fact, Dr. DeBakey admitted at that time that, although he knew he 
was ill, he never called his own doctor, and he never called 911. 
Quoting here, ``if it becomes intense enough, you're perfectly willing 
to accept cardiac arrest as a possible way of getting rid of the 
pain,'' he told the New York Times. A wonderful, pragmatic individual.
  He helped establish the National Library of Medicine, which is now 
the world's largest and most prestigious repository for medical 
archives.
  Mr. Speaker, as we talk in this Congress about the need for improving 
the computer technology for medical records and medical information, 
Dr. DeBakey was on the forefront of that while most of us were still in 
grammar school.
  In 1969, he received the highest honor a United States citizen can 
receive: the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction. In 1976, 
his students founded Michael E. DeBakey International Surgical Society.
  His contributions to medicine and his breakthrough surgeries and 
innovative devices have completely transformed our view of the human 
body and its longevity on this planet. At age 98, he deserves the 
highest award that Congress can bestow: the Congressional Gold Medal.

[[Page H2142]]

  I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring H.R. 1154, introduced 
by Al Green of Texas.

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