The NY Times’ medical reporter, Lawrence Altman, M.D., tells the story of how Houston’s famed heart surgeon Michael E. DeBakey changed the course of history by persuading the late Boris Yeltsin that he could survive heart bypass surgery after the Russian president had suffered a heart attack in the fall of 1996. The surgery saved Yeltsin’s life and allowed him to live for another decade.
Of course, there are some who would argue that Dr. DeBakey efforts did not change history for the better.