A bill to award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey, M.D.
PL 110-95 (S.474), enacted 10/16/2007

121 STAT. 1008 
PUBLIC LAW 110–95—OCT. 16, 2007 
Public Law 110–95 
110th Congress 
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 oper-
ation. 
(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 volun-
teered 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 Commis-
sion 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 resi-
dency 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. 
31 USC 5111 
note. 
Oct. 16, 2007 
[S. 474] 
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121 STAT. 1009 
PUBLIC LAW 110–95—OCT. 16, 2007 
(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 sur-
geons 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 coopera-
tive 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 sur-
gery 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 Distinc-
tion, 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 out-
standing 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. 
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121 STAT. 1010 
PUBLIC LAW 110–95—OCT. 16, 2007 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY—S. 474 (H.R. 1154): 
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 153 (2007): 
Mar. 27, considered and passed Senate. 
Oct. 2, considered and passed House. 
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 depos-
ited into the United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund. 
Approved October 16, 2007. 
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