Farewell, Dr. DeBakey.

Dr. Michael DeBakey has died at the age of 99.

It can be said that before Michael DeBakey, and other pioneers of his time such as Denton Cooley, heart disease was an automatic death sentence. After Michael DeBakey heart disease, while certainly still serious, had become very treatable and one could live a long life, even thriving, after a diagnosis of it.

Michael DeBakey lived to an immense age, nearly a hundred. He fulfilled his medical oath, practicing medicine, until the day he died. The honors that he was awarded are almost without number. He has become one with such giants as Jenner and Pasture who “contended with disease” as the ancient Egyptian physicians would say. With Michael DeBakey, disease often got the worse of that battle and for that we honor a great doctor.

I feel shame over not knowing this man’s name before his death, but I feel pride in knowing his name now.

Farewell, Dr. DeBakey. You’ve made all our lives better.