Michael DeBakey, pioneer of heart procedures, dead at 99

Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died Friday night at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, officials announced. He was 99.

DeBakey died from "natural causes," according to a written statement issued early Saturday by spokesmen for Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital.

When Dr. Michael E. DeBakey pushed forward with his groundbreaking research and maverick approach to medicine a half century ago, heart surgery was a medical marvel.

Today, in part because of his contributions, it routinely saves thousands of lives each day.

DeBakey, a world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died Friday night in Houston. He was 99.

According to a statement issued early Saturday by Baylor College of Medicine and Methodist Hospital, DeBakey died of "natural causes" shortly after arriving at the hospital. The hospital's heart and vascular center bears his name.

DeBakey, whose career spanned more than 70 years, counted world leaders among his patients and helped turn Baylor from a provincial school into one of the nation's great medical institutions.

"Dr. DeBakey's reputation brought many people into this institution, and he treated them all: heads of state, entertainers, businessmen and presidents, as well as people with no titles and no means," said Ron Girotto, president of The Methodist Hospital System.

A tireless worker and stern taskmaster, DeBakey performed more than 60,000 heart surgeries during his career and had scores of patients under his care at any one time.

Among his patients were presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, the Shah of Iran, King Hussein of Jordan, Turkish President Turgut Ozal and Nicaraguan leader Violetta Chamorro.

But he said celebrities didn't get special treatment on the operating table: "Once you incise the skin, you find that they are all very similar."

At an April ceremony in Washington in which DeBakey was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor, President Bush said the award placed the surgeon in the company of inventor Thomas Edison, Army doctor Walter Reed and Jonas Salk, who developed the polio vaccine.

"His legacy is holding the fragile and sacred gift of human life in his hands and returning it unbroken," Bush said at the time.

Born to Lebanese immigrants on Sept. 7, 1908, in Lake Charles, La., DeBakey his interest in medicine began while listening to physicians chat at his father's pharmacy.

"I always knew I wanted to be a doctor. I just didn't know what kind," DeBakey once said.