Dr. Michael DeBakey, the world-famous cardiovascular surgeon who pioneered such now-common procedures as bypass surgery and invented a host of devices to help heart patients, died Friday night at a Hospital in Houston, Texas, officials announced. He was 99. DeBakey died from "natural causes," according to a written statement issued early Saturday by spokesmen for Baylor College of Medicine and The Hospital, the Associated Press reported. DeBakey underwent surgery in February 2006 for a damaged aorta -- a procedure he had developed.
