Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., is the oldest of five children born to Lebanese immigrants Shaker Morris and Raheehja DeBakey in Lake Charles, LA. Valedictorian of his high school class, he pursued a college education at Tulane University.

Following his undergraduate sophomore year, he entered Tulane’s medical school, but determined to graduate with his Arts and Science class, he worked on the separate curricula simultaneously and completed his undergraduate studies at the end of his second year in medical school. During his senior medical school year, he created the roller pump, which two decades later would become a crucial component of the heart-lung machine and pave the way for open-heart surgery.

Following an internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, the fledgling physician continued his studies in Strasbourg, France, and Heidelberg, Germany. Returning to the United States in 1937, he joined Tulane’s faculty, but volunteered to serve his country at the beginning of World War II. As Colonel Michael DeBakey, he served on the Surgeon General’s Staff. earning the U.S. Army Legion of Merit Award, while studies conducted during this time led to the development of mobile army surgical hospitals or MASH units. In addition, he helped to establish the system of treating military personnel returning from the war, a concept that evolved into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center System.

In 1948, Michael E. DeBakey, M.D., was recruited by Baylor College of Medicine as its new Chairman of Surgery, an event that precipitated not only major changes at the College but a series of events that focused world attention, both on Dr. Michael E. DeBakey and on Baylor.