Denton Cooley
Denton A. Cooley | |
---|---|
Denton Cooley
|
|
Born | August 22, 1920 Houston, TX |
Education | University of Texas at Austin University of Texas Medical Branch Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
Known for | First clinical implantation of a totalartificial heart |
Medical career | |
Profession | Surgeon |
Institutions | St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital Texas Children’s Hospital The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston |
Signature | |
Denton Arthur Cooley (born August 22, 1920) is an American heart surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart. Cooley is also founder and surgeon in-chief of The Texas Heart Institute, chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, and a clinical professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Contents
[hide]
School and early career[edit]
Cooley graduated in 1941 from The University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity and the Texas Cowboys, played on the basketball team, and majored in zoology. He became interested in surgery through several pre-med classes he attended in college[1] and began his medical education at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. He completed his medical degree and his surgical training at theJohns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, where he also completed his internship. At Johns Hopkins, he worked with Dr. Alfred Blalock and assisted in the first “Blue Baby” procedure to correct an infant’scongenital heart defect.[2]
In 1946 Cooley was called to active duty with the Army Medical Corps. There, he served as chief of surgical services at the station hospital in Linz, Austria, and was discharged in 1948 with the rank of captain. He then returned to complete his residency at Johns Hopkins and remain as an instructor in surgery. In 1950 he went to London to work with Lord Russell Brock.
Major career events[edit]
In the 1950s Cooley returned to Houston to become associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and to work at its affiliate institution, The Methodist Hospital.[3] During the 1950s, Cooley began working withMichael E. DeBakey. During that time he worked on developing a new method of removing aortic aneurysms, the bulging weak spots that may develop in the wall of the artery.
In 1960, Cooley moved his practice to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital while continuing to teach at Baylor. In 1962 he founded The Texas Heart Institute with private funds and, following a dispute with DeBakey, he resigned his position at Baylor in 1969.
His skill as a surgeon was demonstrated as he successfully performed numerous bloodless open-heart surgeries on Jehovah’s Witness patients beginning in the early 1960s.[4]
The 1960s saw a number of advances in Cooley’s career. He and his colleagues worked on developing new artificial heart valves from 1962 to 1967; during that time period mortality for heart valve transplants fell from 70% to 8%.[5][6] In 1969, he became the first heart surgeon to implant an artificial heart designed by Domingo Liotta in a man, Haskell Karp, who lived for 65 hours.[7] The next year, in 1970, “he performed the first implantation of an artificial heart in a human when no heart replacement was immediately available.”[8]
Personal life[edit]
Cooley’s interests include basketball, which he played in high school and as a three-year letterman for the UT men’s basketball team (1939–41), and golf, which he became interested in during his youth and has been playing for 68 years. (The practice and training facility of the UT men’s and women’s basketball teams—the Denton A. Cooley Pavilion, which opened in 2003—was named in his honor.[9][10]) Among his other outside interests, Cooley played upright bass in a swing band called The Heartbeats from 1965 through the early 1970s.[11]
On March 13, 1972, the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society was founded at the Texas Heart Institute by the Residents and Fellows of Cooley to honor him. Founding President Philip S. Chua had envisioned this exclusive Society to foster academic, professional and personal camaraderie among cardiac surgeons in the United States and around the world through scientific seminars and symposia. There are now more than 900 cardiac surgeons from more than 50 countries around the globe who are members of the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society.
In the HBO film Something the Lord Made, Cooley was portrayed by Timothy J. Scanlin, Jr.
Cooley reportedly answered in the affirmative when a lawyer during a trial asked him if he considered himself to be the best heart surgeon in the world. “Don’t you think that’s being rather immodest?” the lawyer replied. “Perhaps,” Cooley responded. “But remember I’m under oath.”
Cooley filed for bankruptcy in 1988 citing real estate debts during a market downturn.[12]
During the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Cooley was asked by then-candidate George W. Bush to review vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney‘s medical records, particularly concerning the status of his chronic heart condition.
Cooley and the heart surgeon Michael DeBakey had a professional rivalry that lasted more than 40 years. They made amends in a public rapprochement on November 7, 2007, when DeBakey was 99 years old (Cooley was 87).[13]
Honors and awards[edit]
- Awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Ronald Reagan in 1984, the nation’s highest civilian award
- The René Leriche Prize, the highest honor of the International Surgical Society
- Awarded the National Medal of Technology by Bill Clinton in 1998
- He is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Medical Sciences.
In addition, Cooley has authored or co-authored more than 1,400 scientific articles and 12 books.
Quotes[edit]
- “I’ve always felt that I did well as a student because I lacked confidence.”[14]
- “Of the many ‘firsts’ with which I have been involved at the Texas Heart Institute —including the first successful human heart transplant in the United States and the first total artificial heart transplant in the world—the achievement that may have the greatest impact on health care did not occur in the operating room or in the research laboratory. It happened on a piece of paper… when we created the first-ever packaged pricing plan for cardiovascular surgical procedures.”[15][16]
- “Get a scalpel, and practice just, say, cutting a piece of meat or something like that. You sort of learn how you want to hold your fingers, and that sort of thing, and try to become graceful when you operate.”[17]
- “I find I’m luckier when I work harder.”[17]
Search Results
Meet the Doctor: Dr. Denton A. Cooley with the Texas Heart Institute …
http://bestdocsnetwork.com/houston/annie-varughese/ Houston Cardiologist Dr. Annie Varughese sits down …
Interview with Dr. Denton Cooley – YouTube
Interview with Dr. Denton Cooley … Meet the Doctor: Dr. Denton A. Cooley with the Texas Heart Institute …
Dr. Denton Cooley and his quick hands simplified open heart …
The experience enabled Cooley to ‘streamline’ open heart surgery, … Legendary Houston heart surgeon …
Denton Cooley Performs Mitral Valve Implantation – YouTube
Dr. Denton Cooley performs a mitral valve replacement in this historical video from October 1987. No narration …
Dr. Denton A. Cooley, M.D. – YouTube
Dr. Cooley is a world-renowned heart surgeon and one of the founders of Global Healthcare Alliance. Dr …
The Cooley Touch: An Interview with Denton Cooley – YouTube
The Cooley Touch: An Interview with Denton Cooley … Dr. Denton Cooley 2011 History Making Texan Award …
Denton Cooley, Longhorn Legend – YouTube
Denton Cooley, Longhorn Legend. The University of … An Age of Challenge; Denton A. Cooley and the Texas …
Dr. Denton Cooley – YouTube
Tribute film documenting the career of cardiiovascular surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley of the Texas Heart …
Myxoma Removal Part 1: Denton Cooley, MD – YouTube
A myxoma is a rare, usually noncancerous, primary tumor (a new growth of tissue) of the heart. It is the most …
Touch My Heart – Dr. Denton Cooley – YouTube
A Video Tribute from Dr. Denton Cooley in honor of his late father, Dr. Ralph Cooley.
Search Results
Denton Cooley – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cooley is also founder and surgeon in-chief of The Texas Heart Institute, chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, and a clinical professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
Denton A. Cooley, MD – Texas Heart Institute
Denton A. Cooley, MD, president emeritus, founded the Texas Heart Institute in 1962. He is chief, Cardiovascular Surgery at CHI St. Luke’s Health – Baylor St.
Denton A. Cooley, M.D., Founder and President Emeritus of the Texas …
Denton A. Cooley, MD, founder and president emeritus of the Texas Heart Institute, is a world-renowned surgeon, having pioneered many techniques used in cardiovascular surgery today. A native of Houston, Texas, Dr. Cooley graduated with the highest honors from the University of …
Denton Cooley Biography — Academy of Achievement
Sep 25, 2007 – Denton Cooley was born and raised in Houston, Texas. His father, a dentist, had a thriving practice and was able to invest profitably in real …
100,000 Hearts: A Surgeon’s Memoir by Denton A. Cooley, MD – NCBI
Denton Cooley was born in Houston in 1920. In a description of his early years, Cooley informs us that he grew up in reasonably comfortable economic …
Denton Cooley Biography – Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline
Denton Cooley is the American cardiologist who performed the world’s first implantation of an artificial heart. This biography of Denton Cooley provides detailed …
Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and Dr. Denton A. Cooley – Heart Surgeons …
Nov 27, 2007 – In 1969, Dr. Denton A. Cooley took an artificial heart from the lab of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and started a feud that ended up on the cover of …
Meet the Doctor: Dr. Denton A. Cooley with the Texas Heart Institute …
http://bestdocsnetwork.com/houston/annie-varughese/ Houston Cardiologist Dr. Annie Varughese sits down …
Denton A. Cooley, M.D. | People | Baylor College of Medicine …
Denton A. Cooley, MD, president emeritus, founded the Texas Heart Institute in 1962. He is chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at CHI St. Luke’s Health – Baylor St.
Denton A. Cooley | American surgeon | Britannica.com
American surgeon and educator chiefly noted for heart-transplant operations. He was also the first to implant an artificial heart in a human. In April 1969 Cooley …