[110th Congress Public Law 95]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
[DOCID: f:publ095.110]
[[Page 1007]]
CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL FOR MICHAEL ELLIS DEBAKEY
[[Page 121 STAT. 1008]]
Public Law 110-95
110th Congress
An Act
To award a congressional gold medal to Michael Ellis DeBakey,
M.D. <<NOTE: Oct. 16, 2007 - [S. 474]>>
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress <<NOTE: 31 USC 5111
note.>> 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.
[[Page 121 STAT. 1009]]
(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.
[[Page 121 STAT. 1010]]
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.
Approved October 16, 2007.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY--S. 474 (H.R. 1154):
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CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol. 153 (2007):
Mar. 27, considered and passed Senate.
Oct. 2, considered and passed House.
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