- Denton Cooley
-
Denton A. Cooley 
Born August 22, 1920
Houston, TXEducation University of Texas
University of Texas Medical Branch
Johns Hopkins School of MedicineKnown for First clinical implantation of a total artificial heart Profession Surgeon Institutions St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
Texas Children's Hospital
The University of Texas Health Science Center at HoustonSpecialism Cardiovascular surgery 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 Medical School at Houston.
Contents
School and Early Career
Cooley graduated in 1941 from the University of Texas, where he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity, played on the basketball team, and majored in Zoology. He became interested in surgery through several premed 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 Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 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's congenital 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
In the 1950s Cooley returned to Houston to become associate professor of surgery at Baylor University College of Medicine and to work at its affiliate institution, the Methodist Hospital [3]. During the 1950s, Cooley began working with Michael 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 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 work 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 Dr. Domingo Liotta in a man, Hanskell Karp, who lived for 65 hours. [7]. The next year, in 1969, "he performed the first implantation of an artificial heart in a human when no heart replacement was immediately available"[8].
Other Facts
Cooley's interests include basketball which he played in high school and golf which he became interested in during his youth and has been playing for 68 years. Among his other outside interests, Dr. Cooley played upright bass in a swing band called the Heartbeats from 1965 through the early 1970s.[9]
On March 13, 1972, the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society was founded at the Texas Heart Institute by the Residents and Fellows of Dr. Cooley to honor him. Founding President, Philip S. Chua, MD, FACS, FPCS, 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. Its website is www.cooleysociety.com
In the HBO film Something The Lord Made, Dr. 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,” Dr. Cooley responded. “But remember I’m under oath.”
Cooley filed for bankruptcy in 1988 citing real estate debts during a market downturn.[10]
During the 2000 U.S. Presidential Elections, Dr. Cooley was asked by then candidate George W. Bush to review VP candidate Dick Cheney's medical records, particularly concerning the status of his chronic heart condition.
Cooley and the legendary heart surgeon Dr. 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).[11]
Honors and awards
- 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 Department of Medical Sciences.
In addition, Cooley has authored or co-authored more than 1,300 scientific articles and 13 books.
Quotes
- "I've always felt that I did well as a student because I lacked confidence."
- "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."[12][13]
References
- ^ "Legends in Medicine: Denton A. Cooley, M.D.". The University of Texas medical branch. http://www.utmb.edu/legends/cooley.htm. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ "Denton Cooley Biography". Academy of Achievement. http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/coo0bio-1. Retrieved August 16, 2011.
- ^ http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/coo0bio-1
- ^ Ott DA, Cooley DA. Cardiovascular surgery in Jehovah's Witnesses. Report of 542 operations without blood transfusion. JAMA. 1977;232:1256-1258
- ^ http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/coo0bio-1
- ^ http://www.utmb.edu/legends/cooley.htm
- ^ "1969 Year in Review, UPI.com"
- ^ http://www.utmb.edu/legends/cooley.htm
- ^ "Dr. Denton Cooley: King of Hearts," Innovator, Summer 2001, St. Luke's Episcopal Health System, Houston, TX.
- ^ "Dr. Denton Cooley Petitions For Bankruptcy Protection". The New York Times. January 6, 1988. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE7DB1538F935A35752C0A96E948260. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Ackerman, Todd (2007-11-07). "Top heart surgeons Cooley and DeBakey put their decades-old feud to rest". Houston Chronicle. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/5280060.html. Retrieved 2007-11-07.
- ^ Myerson AR (1994-02-13). "It's a business. No, it's a religion". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/13/business/it-s-a-business-no-it-s-a-religion.html.
- ^ Edmonds C, Hallman GL (1995). "CardioVascular Care Providers. A pioneer in bundled services, shared risk, and single payment". Tex Heart Inst J 22 (1): 72–6. PMC 325213. PMID 7787473. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=325213.
External links
- Video: Cooley Medical Pioneers Biography on Health.mil – The Military Health System provides a look at the life and work of Denton Cooley.
- Denton A. Cooley, MD. Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
- The Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society
- Find-A-Grave profile for Denton Cooley although still living his biography is on this site
Categories:- American surgeons
- Cardiac surgeons
- People from Houston, Texas
- American Episcopalians
- National Medal of Technology recipients
- Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
- Texas Longhorns men's basketball players
- 1920 births
- Living people
- Johns Hopkins University alumni
- Members of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Baylor College of Medicine physicians and researchers
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