Main description:

The pioneering surgeon Dr. Denton Cooley performed his first human heart transplant in 1968 and astounded the world in 1969 by conducting the first successful implantation of a totally artificial heart in a human being. Over the course of his career, Cooley and his associates performed thousands of open-heart operations and pioneered the use of new surgical procedures. Of all his achievements, however, Cooley was most proud of the Texas Heart Institute, which he founded in 1962 with a mission to use education, research, and improved patient care to decrease the devastating effects of cardiovascular disease.

In 100,000 Hearts, Cooley tells about his childhood in Houston, his education at the University of Texas, his medical-school training at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and Johns Hopkins, and his service in the Army Medical Corps. While at Johns Hopkins, Cooley assisted in a groundbreaking operation to correct an infant's congenital heart defect, which inspired him to specialize in heart surgery.

Cooley's detailed descriptions of working in the operating room at crucial points in medical history offer a fascinating perspective on the distance medical science traveled in just a few decades.

Contents:

Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: My Roots
Chapter 2: Boyhood Friends and Activities
Chapter 3: "This, My Friend, is the UT"
Chapter 4: Becoming a Doctor
Chapter 5: The Dawn of Heart Surgery
Chapter 6: Army Doctor
Chapter 7: Residency at Hopkins
Chapter 8: A Year at the Brompton
Chapter 9: Pioneering Cardiovascular Surgery
Chapter 10: Opening up the Heart
Chapter 11: An Institute for the Heart
Chapter 12: Transplanting Hearts
Chapter 13: The Total Artificial Heart
Chapter 14: The "Cooley Hilton" and Beyond
Chapter 15: On Being a Surgeon
Chapter 16: Private Life
Chapter 17: Reconciliation with Mike
Summing Up
Appendix A: Glossary
Appendix B: Personal Contributions to Cardiovascular Surgery
Appendix C: Surgical Inventions and Products
Appendix D: Selected Publications
Appendix E: Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society
Appendix F: Curriculum Vitae
Index