Huston [Click to enlarge]

Just a few days ago, Dr. Michael DeBakey, a pioneer in cardiothoracic surgery, received the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor. He adds the medal to a very long list of honors bestowed on him throughout his long career.

At the ceremony in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, fellow Texan, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, said of DeBakey, "(In receiving this award) he joins the company of George Washington, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison."

In his remarks at the ceremony, President George W. Bush put DeBakey in the company of Drs. Walter Reed and Jonas Salk.

DeBakey will be 100 in September; he has had an unusually long and distinguished career, performing a double bypass, with steady hands, at the age of 90.

Known as "The Texas Tornado" for his tireless work ethic, DeBakey was the child of Lebanese immigrants who instilled in him the importance of a good education. Throughout his career, he led the way in developing new techniques for heart surgeries and performed some of the earliest heart and multiple-organ transplants in the U.S. He is also responsible for developing the concept of Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals, known as M.A.S.H. units.

Corinne Huston of Marshall knows all of that and much more about DeBakey.

Huston, a registered nurse with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from Washington University in St. Louis, and a master's degree from Central Missouri State University in Warrensburg, worked with DeBakey for several years in the 1960s. She was the operating room instructor at Methodist Hospital in Houston, where DeBakey was a surgeon and teacher.

Now retired, Huston said DeBakey was remarkable among surgeons for his very high standards and his selflessness.

"He didn't ask of others what he wouldn't do himself," she said.

Huston attended Marshall schools through high school; she is the daughter of William M. and Marguerite Connell Huston. Her great-great-grandfather built the Huston Tavern in Arrow Rock.

Her maternal grandfather was a country doctor, she said, often taking care of patients at home.

That may have been what inspired Huston to spend summers working as a nurse's aide at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. Like many area youngsters, she also briefly had a job detasseling corn.

Huston was active in high school in orchestra, where she played the violin, "badly," she says. She was also a member of several vocal groups and the pep club. Among her favorite books were Nancy Drew detective stories, the Cherry Ames series about a young nurse, and "The Life of Clara Barton," founder of the American Red Cross.

Huston's career as a nurse also intersected with that of Dr. William H. Sweet, former chief of the neurosurgery service at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. Sweet founded one of the first brain scan research laboratories in the world, pioneered techniques for pain relief and helped to advance the application of proton beam treatment for brain tumors. She also worked at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

Huston said she admired all the surgeons she worked for, but has the most admiration for DeBakey, who, she said, "had very high standards, and an exceptional work ethic."

Contact Kathy Fairchild at marshallhealth@socket.net