In the 1950s Cooley returned to Houston to become associate professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine and to work at its affiliate institution, The Methodist Hospital. During the 1950s, Cooley began working with American cardiac surgeon, scientist, and medical educator Michael E. DeBakey. During that time he worked on developing a new method of removing aortic aneurysms, the bulging weak spots that may develop in the wall of the artery.
In 1960, Cooley moved his practice to St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital while continuing to teach at Baylor. In 1962 he founded The Texas Heart Institute with private funds and, following a dispute with DeBakey, he resigned his position at Baylor in 1969.
His skill as a surgeon was demonstrated as he successfully performed numerous bloodless open-heart surgeries on Jehovah’s Witnesses patients beginning in the early 1960s.
He and his colleagues worked on developing new artificial heart valves from 1962 to 1967; during that period, mortality for heart valve transplants fell from 70% to 8%. In 1969, he became the first heart surgeon to implant an artificial heart designed by Domingo Liotta in a man, Haskell Karp, who lived for 65 hours. The next year, in 1970, “he performed the first implantation of an artificial heart in a human when no heart replacement was immediately available.”
More Info at: Denton Cooley – Wikipedia
Additional Articles associated with this person’s firsts:
Name(s):
Denton A Cooley
Occupation:
Heart and Cardiothoracic Surgeon, Founder and Surgeon in-chief of The Texas Heart Institute, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center, Consultant in Cardiovascular Surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital, Clinical Professor of Surgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center
Birth:
August 22, 1920, Houston, Texas, United States
Death:
November 18, 2016, Houston, Texas, United States
Spouse:
Louise Goldborough Thomas (m. 1949–2016)
Children:
Susan Cooley,
Louise Davis,
Mary Craddock,
Helen Fraser,
Florence Cooley
Education:
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Lanier Middle School,
University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston,
Johns Hopkins University, University of Texas at Austin
Additional Information:
- Denton Cooley – Wikipedia
Denton Arthur Cooley (August 22, 1920 – November 18, 2016) was an American heart and cardiothoracic surgeon famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart. Cooley was also founder and surgeon in-chief of The Texas Heart Institute, chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at clinical partner Baylor St. - Dr. Denton Cooley, Whose Pioneering Heart Surgery Set Off a …
Nov 19, 2016 – Dr. Denton A. Cooley, the renowned surgeon who was the first to implant a totally artificial heart in a patient and in the process set off one of … - Denton A. Cooley, M.D. | Baylor College of Medicine | Houston …
Denton A. Cooley was born in 1920 in Houston, Texas. After receiving an M.D. in 1944 from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in Baltimore, … - Denton Cooley | Biography, Heart Transplant, & Facts …
Mar 24, 2020 – Denton Cooley, in full Denton Arthur Cooley, (born August 22, 1920, Houston, Texas, U.S.—died November 18, 2016, Houston), American … - 100,000 Hearts: A Surgeon’s Memoir by Denton A. Cooley, MD
Denton Cooley was born in Houston in 1920. In a description of his early years, Cooley informs us that he grew up in reasonably comfortable economic …