Cardiovascular diseases have been one of the leading causes of death in the United States since the 20th century. People were desperate to fight these deadly illnesses, but they lacked the necessary skills, experience and knowledge.
Denton Cooley has made substantial contributions to medicine, particularly in cardiology. The heart surgeon from Houston is well recognized as the founder of the Texas Heart Institute, where he worked as a chief surgeon.
What was the life of the well-known Houston heart and cardiothoracic surgeon like? What other achievements did Denton Cooley have? Continue reading on i-houston.
Childhood dream
Denton Arthur Cooley was born on August 22, 1920, in Houston, Texas. Since childhood, he was most interested in such areas as biology (zoology), medicine (particularly surgery) and sports (basketball). He grew up as an active and inquisitive young man who aspired to develop and learn.
He received his education at the University of Texas at Austin. When he realized he wanted to devote his life to medicine, he enrolled in the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Denton furthered his medical education at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, where he also completed an internship. He was also fortunate to work with the well-known American surgeon, Alfred Blalock. Cooley took part in a difficult operation to fix a child’s congenital heart disease when he was still quite young. This internship brought Cooley and the heart surgeon (Alfred Blelock) very close. Heart surgery was in its early stages during those years: no diseases or treatment procedures had been studied yet, and there was no medical equipment.
Denton recalled a case when a patient died during one of the cardiac procedures. This deeply disappointed the trainee Cooley, because he could not save this person. Alfred Blalock then supported the boy, emphasizing that they both did everything they could to save the patient’s life.
Sports helped Denton to divert himself from dark and burdensome thoughts. As mentioned earlier, he enjoyed basketball, which he played since high school. As he got older, he developed a passion for golf, which he played for most of his life.
Establishing an institute
After his graduation and internships, with a baggage of knowledge, Denton Cooley returned to his native Houston. The man got a position as a surgeon in a city hospital while also working as a surgery professor at Baylor College of Medicine. At this time, he had already spent a significant amount of time researching innovative surgical methods.
Cooley was so passionate about improving the quality of medicine in the United States and eliminating incurable and unstudied diseases of the time, that he founded The Texas Heart Institute.
The heart surgeon has made significant advances in the research of various diseases, as well as in the diagnosis and treatment of those. The Institute performed the first heart transplantation in the United States, followed by an artificial heart operation (the first in the world) in 1969. There has also been improvement in the study of cardiac conditions among children and newborns, as well as congenital heart defects and others. As a result, this institute has grown to become one of the largest in the country.
In 1962-1967, the Houston cardiac surgeon and his colleagues labored tirelessly to develop new artificial heart valves. The team’s efforts have reduced the number of mortality during heart valve transplants by nearly tenfold, from around 70% to 8%.
In 1972, the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society was established in Denton A. Cooley’s honor. The Society continues to exist today and includes about 1,000 heart surgeons from all over the world.
An interesting fact is that Denton Cooley competed against another renowned cardiac surgeon from Texas, Michael DeBakey, for more than 40 years. Only in 2007, when both were in old age, did they formally declare the end of their competition.
On November 18, 2016, the renowned Houston heart surgeon died in his hometown at the age of 96.