He did national service from 1946-48, during which time he was stationed in Austria in the US Army medical corps. He gained an MD in 1944 and did surgical training at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where he played a part in medical history by assisting Dr Alfred Blalock doing the first operation to correct a “blue baby” heart defect. In 1941 he graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in zoology, but had developed a fascination for medicine and decided to do further study, with a view to becoming a surgeon. He was also a talented sportsman, playing on his college basketball team. Although shy as a child he found a certain confidence in academia and excelled as a student. The operation made medical history and make Cooley world famous but it was not without controversy.Ĭooley was born in Houston in 1920, the son of a prosperous dentist. On April 4, 1969, 50 years ago today, Karp went to surgery and emerged with an artificial heart. Karp and his wife Shirley agreed that if the removal of heart tissue failed doctors should try the mechanical heart.ĭr Denton Cooley, heart surgeon, in his surgery in Texas in 1969. Cooley knew Argentinian doctor, Domingo Liotta, was working on developing an artificial heart but it had never been used on a human. One involved removing a wedge of diseased tissue from his left ventricle to see if it would allow the heart to pump better. ![]() Cooley discussed the options with his patient. Cooley, who had founded the Texas Heart Institute, was doing research into artificial heart valves and had performed several heart transplants.Īfter a month under Cooley’s care, at the beginning of April Karp’s health began a sharp decline. He was referred to one of the best heart specialists of the time, Dr Denton Cooley from St Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Texas. His heart was already battered and scarred from heart attacks, he had been fitted with a pacemaker but early in 1969 his condition began to deteriorate. His heart was badly affected by “diffuse atherosclerotic disease” that had hardened all of his major coronary arteries. ![]() Time was running out for Haskell Karp, a 47-year-old printing estimator from Illinois.
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