Legal Commentary

R.I.P. Dr. Michael DeBakey and Tony Snow

By Beldar

I've heard this morning already news of the deaths of two Americans, one prematurely and the other after a full life, but both remarkable men.

Dr. Michael DeBakey was a legend who forever changed both cardiovascular medicine and the City of Houston. Exactly three years ago this week, I was in the cardiac care unit at The Methodist Hospital, and as such I was the very direct beneficiary of the legacy he built there and at its affiliated medical school, Baylor College of Medicine. And he died there last night, of natural causes, at age 99 ? after a full life of singular professional distinction. I doubt any single physician or scientist is likely to have so phenomenal an impact on medical science in the 21st Century as he did in the 20th.

Tony Snow, by contrast, died far too young, struck down at age 53 at the peak of his career. I cannot help but think that his death to cancer was a tragic loss not just to his family and friends, but to our entire country. But for his illness, I wonder how much more effective the Bush Administration's second-term communications with its constituents might have been.

Full post as published by BeldarBlog on July 12, 2008 (boomark / email).