Denton A. Cooley, MD, a cardiac surgeon and founder of the Texas Heart Institute, died Nov. 18, the New York Times reports. He was 96.
The newspaper noted that in April 1969, Cooley became the first surgeon to implant an artificial heart in a patient. But the procedure drew criticism and led to Cooley resigning from the Baylor College of Medicine. The American College of Surgeons also censured him for unauthorized use of a device, which is now in the Smithsonian Institute, according to the Times.
After playing basketball at the University of Texas and earning his undergraduate degree at the school, he received his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1944. He founded the Texas Heart Institute in 1962 and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1984.
Read the full obituary below:
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.