Ostensibly, it was all about the first implantation of an artificial heart. Argentinian surgeon, Domingo Liotta, started to work on the project at the University of…
Michael DeBakey, the Surgeon who Saved His Own Life.
Putting together a puzzle of life, if you start with a piece of an enormous drive to excellence, add a piece of self-discipline, follow it with…
Denton A. Cooley, Bigger than Texas
Modify, simplify, apply Denton A. Cooley, motto of The Texas Heart Institute. A story had circulated about Denton Cooley, the famous Houston-based surgeon and innovator, an…
Francis Robicsek, the Renaissance Man.
He was Hungarian. His name, however, like the name of the city he was born, Miskolc, was Slavic. He came from the part of Eastern Europe…
Cardiac Pacemakers
My uncle died in Poland during the implant of his permanent pacemaker. At that time, I was a medical student, and I thought I should be…
Forty-five years of cardiac surgery
In my gym, I meet the best people, and have the most interesting conversations, in the jacuzzi. It’s located in a corner of the large pool…
Why Doctors Commit Suicides
This had happened at the end of one of my surgical boards’ exams, quite a long time ago. The day was long and we were all…
How to Deal with Anger like Buddha
One day, the Buddha and a large following of monks and nuns were passing through a village. The Buddha chose a large shade tree to sit…
Anger in the operating room
This scene looks familiar to most people who ever worked in the operating room. A high-power doctor, say a cardiac surgeon, is doing a long and…