A Brief History
On April 4, 1969, Dr. Denton Cooley performed surgery to implant the first artificial (temporary) heart in history!
Digging Deeper
Dr. Cooley was a renowned heart surgeon and founder of the Texas Heart Institute.
Having worked with Dr. Michael DeBakey (another renowned heart surgeon that invented the pump that makes heart surgery possible), Cooley was part of the team that performed the first heart transplant in the United States as well as his artificial heart work. He also pioneered techniques using artificial heart valves which reduced mortality in heart valve replacement surgery from 70% to 8%!
Unfortunately, Cooley had a falling out with DeBakey and the two giants of heart surgery did not reconcile until Cooley was 87 and DeBakey was 99 (2007)!
Never one to practice false modesty, Cooley once was asked by an attorney in court if Cooley was the best heart surgeon in the world, which of course Cooley responded to with a yes, saying, “Remember, I’m under oath!” Cooley also once said his greatest contribution to heart surgery was his invention of packaged pricing!
Cooley was so good at heart surgery he was able to perform numerous surgeries on Jehovah’s Witness members that refused to allow transfusions! Cooley has also authored 12 books and over a thousand medical articles and has been given many awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Cooley was called upon by future President George W. Bush to review Dick Cheney’s heart health for suitability as vice president! Cooley suffered bankruptcy in 1988 despite his stature as perhaps the premier heart surgeon in the country if not the world!
Cooley is depicted in the HBO movie Something The Lord Made about heart surgery pioneers (especially Vivien Thomas, an African-American). Despite extending the lives of many patients with heart transplants, Cooley was actually criticized by many people who felt “brain dead” was not “real dead” and that removing a still beating heart from a person was immoral whether he was brain dead or not. Question for students (and subscribers): Do you think removing a beating heart is moral or immoral? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Cooley, Denton A. 100,000 Hearts: A Surgeon’s Memoir. Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin, 2012.
Cooley, Denton A. Reflections and Observations: Essays of Denton A. Cooley : Collected by Marianne Kneipp. Eakin Pr, 1984.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="1674 http://www.crackedhistory.com/?p=1674">33 Comments
Science and technology have always fascinated me! — DAVID WARDLE
Amazing how they come up with stuff like this
I love articles like this! It’s so fascinating that we have the knowledge and technology. I am thankful those who work hard to become our doctors, nurses, and surgeons.
This is amazing, especially with the time period because they didn’t have as much technology as we do now.
What a tremendous break through in medical technology
Absolutely amazing
If a person is brain dead and their heart could help someone else I would say it is moral.
Science keeps getting more and more impressive
Now, onward to the same without needing antirejection drugs!
thats why you always give life chances. If he never would of tried the artificial heart that patient wouldnt of lived them extra three days until she got the real heart transplant.
What a busy life, authoring 12 books along with being a heart surgeon…
Dr. Cooley have had used his value very well. When someone is multitask, we as a society and the government should take care of these types of people because they are beneficial for the society. We also should focus on his children or family because their might be someone who heredite from his skill to benefit the country and the world.
He seems like a great person that has influenced on history. Crazy what he has done and how many books he has written.
I don’t really think that removing a beating heart is considered immoral if the person is a organ donor and considered brain dead. The person made the decision when they were living and obviously were okay with the process when they decided to be an organ donor.
It sounds like Cooley put his talents as a surgeon to good use.
If the person was an organ donor and was brain dead, I don’t think it was immoral.
A person as valuable to science as this guy was deserves to be a millionaire, not freaking bankrupt. Plus, if a person is brain dead, they’re basically in purgatory, it seems necessary to end their suffering so to speak.
This a amazing accomplishment and I think this is completely fine
As long as it advances the technology to better the world, it is perfectly fine.
Cooley saved so many lives with his advancements yet went bankrupt. He was cocky but he could back up his claims. He became like a celebrity in the Surgeon World.
This is the future for us and I’m glad that it’s a positive look on this. Advancement in technology is continuing everyday. Remember to be an organ donor! Don’t let your organs go to waste!
What an amazing medical discovery. It is crazy to think that we were able to create artificial organs that worked.
Wow what an amzing guy! Good build confidence also.
I gotta admit this is pretty cool! shame they had a falling out though.
It’s amazing to see what medicine can do now. Sadly though medicines failure rate is 100%.
It’s a shame to see he went bankrupt, who knows what he would have accomplished.
Wow I thought this was a recent invention
Pretty cool invention and i thought this was more recent
Dr. Cooley was a pretty cool man. He saved a lot of lives.
I always thought this was a recent invention! Interesting.
This article is very interesting to me as my major is nursing. I also had 2 open heart surgeries and my most recent surgery I had an artificial valve put in. It’s one of the best artificial valves that’s out there called the On-x valve.
Dr. Cooley saved a lot of lives. It’s amazing how heart transplants can save lives even if it’s not their original hearts.
I don’t see the point in keeping a person alive with no brain activity. Better to use their organs to save others in my opinion.