Heart Surgery Pioneer Died

Michael E. DeBakey, 99, the father of modern cardiovascular surgery, who invented scores of medical procedures and instruments, developed the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital and established what later became the Veterans Affairs hospital system, died July 11 at Methodist Hospital in Houston. The hospital did not release the cause of death, but he had undergone heart surgery in 2006.

DeBakey stopped performing surgery at age 90, after more than 60,000 operations spanning a 70-year medical career.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/12/AR2008071201922.html