S. 474

One Hundred Tenth Congress

of the

United States of America 

AT THE FIRST SESSION 

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, 

the fourth day of January, two thousand and seven 

An Act 

To award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 

the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

The Congress makes the following findings: 

(1) Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., was born on September 

7, 1908, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, to Shaker and Raheeja 

DeBakey. 

(2) Dr. DeBakey, at the age of 23 and still a medical 

student, reported a major invention, a roller pump for blood 

transfusions, which later became a major component of the 

heart-lung machine used in the first successful open-heart operation. 

(3) Even though Dr. DeBakey had already achieved a 

national reputation as an authority on vascular disease and 

had a promising career as a surgeon and teacher, he volunteered for military service during World War II, joining the 

Surgeon General’s staff and rising to the rank of Colonel and 

Chief of the Surgical Consultants Division. 

(4) As a result of this first-hand knowledge of military 

service, Dr. DeBakey made numerous recommendations for the 

proper staged management of war wounds, which led to the 

development of mobile army surgical hospitals or ‘‘MASH’’ 

units, and earned Dr. DeBakey the Legion of Merit in 1945. 

(5) After the war, Dr. DeBakey proposed the systematic 

medical follow-up of veterans and recommended the creation 

of specialized medical centers in different areas of the United 

States to treat wounded military personnel returning from war, 

and from this recommendation evolved the Veterans Affairs 

Medical Center System and the establishment of the Commission on Veterans Medical Problems of the National Research 

Council. 

(6) In 1948, Dr. DeBakey joined the Baylor University 

College of Medicine, where he developed the first surgical residency program in the city of Houston, and today, guided by 

Dr. DeBakey’s vision, the College is one of the most respected 

health science centers in the Nation. 

(7) In 1953, Dr. DeBakey performed the first successful 

procedures to treat patients who suffered aneurysms leading 

to severe strokes, and he later developed a series of innovative 

surgical techniques for the treatment of aneurysms enabling 

thousands of lives to be saved in the years ahead. 
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(8) In 1964, Dr. DeBakey triggered the most explosive 

era in modern cardiac surgery, when he performed the first 

successful coronary bypass, once again paving the way for surgeons worldwide to offer hope to thousands of patients who 

might otherwise succumb to heart disease. 

(9) Two years later, Dr. DeBakey made medical history 

again, when he was the first to successfully use a partial 

artificial heart to solve the problems of a patient who could 

not be weaned from a heart-lung machine following open-heart 

surgery. 

(10) In 1968, Dr. DeBakey supervised the first successful 

multi-organ transplant, in which a heart, both kidneys, and 

lung were transplanted from a single donor into 4 separate 

recipients. 

(11) In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. 

DeBakey to the position of Chairman of the President’s 

Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke, leading to 

the creation of Regional Medical Programs established ‘‘to 

encourage and assist in the establishment of regional cooperative arrangements among medical schools, research institutions, 

and hospitals, for research and training’’. 

(12) In the mid-1960s, Dr. DeBakey pioneered the field 

of telemedicine with the first demonstration of open-heart surgery to be transmitted overseas by satellite. 

(13) In 1969, Dr. DeBakey was elected the first President 

of Baylor College of Medicine. 

(14) In 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson bestowed on 

Dr. DeBakey the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction, and in 1985, President Ronald Reagan conferred on him 

the National Medal of Science. 

(15) Working with NASA engineers, he refined existing 

technology to create the DeBakey Ventricular Assist Device, 

one-tenth the size of current versions, which may eliminate 

the need for heart transplantation in some patients. 

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

(a) PRESENTATION AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the House 

of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate 

shall make appropriate arrangements for the presentation, on 

behalf of the Congress, of a gold medal of appropriate design, 

to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D., in recognition of his many outstanding contributions to the Nation. 

(b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For purposes of the presentation 

referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the Treasury (referred 

to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall strike a gold medal with 

suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by 

the Secretary. 

SEC. 3. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in bronze of the 

gold medal struck pursuant to section 2 under such regulations 

as the Secretary may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the 

cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, 

and overhead expenses, and the cost of the gold medal. 
S. 474—3

SEC. 4. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

(a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck pursuant to this 

Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 of title 31, 

United States Code. 

(b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of sections 5134 and 

5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals struck under 

this Act shall be considered to be numismatic items. 

SEC. 5. AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS; PROCEEDS OF SALE. 

(a) AUTHORITY TO USE FUND AMOUNTS.—There is authorized 

to be charged against the United States Mint Public Enterprise 

Fund such amounts as may be necessary to pay for the costs 

of the medals struck pursuant to this Act. 

(b) PROCEEDS OF SALE.—Amounts received from the sale of 

duplicate bronze medals authorized under section 3 shall be deposited into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund.

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Vice President of the United States and

President of the Senate.