Surgeons feuded for 40 years

Dr. Michael DeBakey added another “first” to his list of accomplishments with a successful coronary artery bypass in a Houston hospital on Nov. 23, 1964.

But the Lake Charles, Louisiana native would not have the surgical world all to himself for long. Dr. Denton Cooley, estranged protégé turned world acclaimed rival, would perform the first implant of a human heart on American soil three and a half years later.

Cooley was born in Houston in 1920. His father was a dentist whose thriving practice and real estate investments guaranteed the “good life” for the family during the Depression. At home, however, the elder Cooley was an abusive alcoholic who ultimately drank himself to death as would Denton’s older brother.