He has been called the greatest surgeon of the 20th century. The son of Lebanese immigrants, Michael DeBakey rose from humble beginnings in a backwater Louisiana town to dominate the landscape of modern medicine. His contributions to our understanding and treatment of cardiovascular disease, in particular, were innumerable and epoch-making. DeBakey led a life of high drama, from the streets of Jazz Age New Orleans and the operating theaters of pre-war Europe, to the battlefields of World War II and the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina. An advisor to Presidents, a health care statesman, and a physician to royalty and commoner alike, he helped build Houston's Texas Medical Center into a jewel of the medical world. Yet DeBakey's own family paid a tremendous cost for his commitment to his fellow man. Buoyed by unique access to primary resources, is the first to tell the remarkable story of a driven genius who led a scientific and therapeutic revolution in all its dramatic depth.