Denton Cooley
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The life of Dr. Denton Cooley is centered around hearts: hearts that beat too fast; hearts that don't beat fast enough; and hearts that stop. Many historic events in the evolution of cardiovascular surgery have occurred at Cooley's fingertips. When this world-renowned heart surgeon was a 24-year-old resident at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he assisted Dr. Alfred Blalock in performing the first "blue baby" operation to correct a congenital heart defect. Cooley didn't know at the time that he was witnessing an historic development in cardiovascular surgery, but he caught on quickly. "I realized that this was the dawn of a new specialty--and a whole new opportunity for me as a young surgeon," he says. In the years that followed, Cooley's career was marked with medical milestones. In 1955 he perfected the heart-lung machine. In 1956 he performed the first open-heart operation in the southern United States. In the 1960s Cooley introduced "bloodless" heart surgery. In 1968 he performed the first successful heart transplant in the United States, and in 1969 he implanted the first totally artificial heart in a human. Although he says the early years of transplantation were "quite exciting," Cooley takes a pragmatic view about the focus of his work. "The heart has always been a special organ," he says. "It has been considered the seat of the soul, the source of courage. But I look upon the heart only as a pump, a servant of the brain. Once the brain is gone, the heart becomes unemployed. Then we must find it other employment." To date, he and his team have performed nearly 100,000 open-heart operations, more than any other group in the world. As president and surgeon-in-chief at the Texas Heart Institute, which he founded in 1962 in the Texas Medical Center in Houston, he is at the forefront of the study and treatment of heart diseases. Cooley is also 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 in Houston. Tall Texan Denton Cooley began his medical studies as a zoology undergraduate at The University of Texas at Austin. After he graduated from high school, the native Houstonian had little difficulty choosing a college. He was looking for a large university that would offer great opportunities scholastically and socially; he wanted to be close to his family in Houston, but not too close; and he wanted to play varsity basketball. He knew there was no better place for him than The University of Texas. Cooley quickly found his niche. In addition to his outstanding scholastic performance, he was actively involved in extracurricular activities, serving in student government and as a member of Kappa Sigma and the Texas Cowboys. He was also able to wear the orange and white on the basketball court. Cooley recalls the first time he stepped onto the floor of Gregory Gymnasium as a walk-on for the varsity basketball team: "It was thrilling. It was something that overwhelmed me," he says. He lettered three years and was a member of the basketball team that won the Southwest Conference championship in 1939. Since Cooley graduated Phi Beta Kappa in the Class of 1941, the University has bestowed several awards on him, including the 1967 Distinguished Alumnus Award and membership in the Longhorn Hall of Honor and the Natural Sciences Hall of Honor. His successful career has allowed him to support causes that are meaningful to him and his wife, Louise. "I think the role of philanthropist is one of the real satisfactions in life," he says. The Denton A. Cooley Foundation has funded two professorships at UT Austin and a varsity basketball scholarship honoring the surgeon and his family. "By today's standards, my education at UT was almost free," Cooley says. "I feel I have an obligation and an opportunity to demonstrate my appreciation for what UT has contributed to my career." His numerous honors and awards include the Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award; the Rene Leriche Prize, the highest honor of the International Surgical Society; and the National Medal of Technology. He is the author or co-author of 10 books and more than 1,200 articles. Bridget Metzger,
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