Other Facts
Cooley's interests include basketball, which he played in high school, and golf, which he became interested in during his youth and has been playing for 68 years. Among his other outside interests, Cooley played upright bass in a swing band called the Heartbeats from 1965 through the early 1970s.
On March 13, 1972, the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society was founded at the Texas Heart Institute by the Residents and Fellows of Cooley to honor him. Founding President Philip S. Chua had envisioned this exclusive Society to foster academic, professional and personal camaraderie among cardiac surgeons in the United States and around the world through scientific seminars and symposia. There are now more than 900 cardiac surgeons from more than 50 countries around the globe who are members of the Denton A. Cooley Cardiovascular Surgical Society.
In the HBO film Something the Lord Made, Cooley was portrayed by Timothy J. Scanlin, Jr.
Cooley reportedly answered in the affirmative when a lawyer during a trial asked him if he considered himself to be the best heart surgeon in the world. “Don’t you think that’s being rather immodest?” the lawyer replied. “Perhaps,” Cooley responded. “But remember I’m under oath.”
Cooley filed for bankruptcy in 1988 citing real estate debts during a market downturn.
During the 2000 U.S. presidential election, Cooley was asked by then-candidate George W. Bush to review vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney's medical records, particularly concerning the status of his chronic heart condition.
Cooley and the legendary heart surgeon Michael DeBakey had a professional rivalry that lasted more than 40 years. They made amends in a public rapprochement on November 7, 2007, when DeBakey was 99 years old (Cooley was 87).
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