David Sabiston

David Coston Sabiston Jr. (October 4, 1924 – January 26, 2009) was an early innovator in cardiac surgery. In 1962, he performed a seminal procedure that paved the way for modern coronary bypass surgery, grafting a vein from a patient's leg to bypass a blocked coronary artery during open-heart surgery. The patient died from unrelated complications, but Sabiston's technique and other surgeons' improvements on it led to the development of surgical coronary revascularization as it exists today. After medical school, Sabiston spent two years as a captain (O3) in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, posted at Walter Reed Medical Center, doing cardiovascular research.

In 1961, Sabiston was granted a Fulbright scholarship to study at the Hospital for Sick Children and Nuffield Department of Surgery at the University of Oxford.

Upon his return to the United States, Sabiston joined the Duke University School of Medicine (Durham, NC) in 1964 as James B. Duke Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery, a position he held for the next 32 years. as well as over 35 books and many invited book chapters. One of those works, "Sabiston's Textbook of Surgery: the Biological Basis of Modern Surgical Practice," is now in its 22nd edition, currently edited by Drs. Townsend, Beauchamp, Evers, and Mattox. It is still considered the definitive treatise on surgical practice.

Early in his tenure in Durham, Sabiston helped to desegregate the surgical clinics and wards at the Duke University Hospital.

Retirement and death

Sabiston retired from medical practice in 1994. He died from the last in a series of three cerebrovascular accidents (strokes) in January 2009 at the age of 84.