Denton Arthur Cooley (1920–2016) was an American heart and cardiothoracic surgeon. One of the most renowned heart surgeons globally, he is famous for performing the first implantation of a total artificial heart.
Born in Houston, Texas, Cooley received his M.D. from Johns Hopkins. In 1954, he joined the Baylor University College of Medicine, where he was a professor of surgery 1962–69, as well as the founder (1962) and chief of the surgical division of the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. He taught at the University of Texas Medical School and held positions at St Luke’s Hospital and the Texas Children’s Hospital.
With Michael DeBakey and others, Cooley pioneered open-heart surgery and the surgical treatment of diseases of the arteries, especially treating aortic aneurysms by graft replacement. He performed the first successful heart transplant in America in 1968 and was the first to implant an artificial heart in a human in 1969; the artificial heart’s recipient lived for 65 hours after the operation.
Cooley’s publications include Essays of Denton A Cooley: Reflections and Observations (1984.)
Journalist and documentarian Harry Eugene Minetree wrote Cooley: The Career of a Great Heart Surgeon (1973.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Denton Cooley
I find I’m luckier when I work harder.
—Denton Cooley
Topics: Luck
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