Dig A Hole: Dr. Michael DeBakey, the man who saved Jerry Lewis’ life

July 12th, 2008 by Scott Marks

In 1982 I was working the dispatch office for Cablevision in Oak Park, Illinois. The phone rang and instead of some irate jerk in Cicero shouting that his Playboy Channel was out it was my friend David Elliott. The call came in at around 7 am San Diego time, an unthinkable hour of the morning for the then childless Mr. Elliott.

My first thought was that a member of the family had taken ill and in a sense I was right. As soon as Dave heard my voice he hit me with, “Jerry had a heart attack.”

Dr. Michael DeBakey was Jerry’s personal physician. The two men met in 1970 when Dr. DeBakey joined the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Scientific Advisory Committee. From 1972 to 1991 Dr. DeBakey served on MDA’s board and had stayed on as MDA national vice president since then.

Jerry and the Doc quickly formed mutual admiration societies, each man carrying pictures of the other in their wallets. It was Dr. DeBakey who first diagnosed Jerry’s addiction to Percodan. During a 1978 visit to Houston, Jerry collapsed and Dr. DeBakey’s first thought was that he had a heart attack. X-Rays revealed an inordinately large bleeding ulcer which were masked by the pain killer Jerry had been addicted to. After two grueling weeks of spinal injections the ulcer showed signs of healing and it was Dr. DeBakey’s nurturing words that helped Jerry kick the Percodan habit.

The attack that Jerry suffered in 1982 was so sudden that it prevented Dr. DeBakey from personally performing the open heart surgery, although he did act as a consultant. In 1992, sawbones DeBakey was once again called upon to help rid Jerry of prostate cancer.

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