Dr. George P. Noon passed away on April 30, 2026. Dr. Noon began his medical career in Houston after completing his residency at Baylor College of Medicine in 1960. And for nearly six decades he helped define what was possible in cardiovascular surgery. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe provided innovative, skillful and compassionate care to his patients and treated everyone he encountered with love and respect,\u201d said Dr. Marc L. Boom, President and CEO of Houston Methodist. \u201cGeorge was not only an example for other physicians, me included, but also a tremendous citizen of our community who served as a role model for everyone he encountered.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1968, Dr. Noon, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey, and their surgical team performed their first heart and later lung transplant. As DeBakey\u2019s surgical partner, Noon was part of one of medicine\u2019s most storied collaborations. Together, they performed countless groundbreaking procedures and co-invented the MicroMed DeBakey-Noon Ventricular Assist Device, a miniaturized heart pump, and implanted it in the first patients.<\/p>\n
The path to that milestone stretched back to 1988, when Drs. Noon and DeBakey first met with NASA engineers to explore whether rocket pump technology could be adapted for the human heart. The collaboration grew from an unlikely connection: a NASA engineer, who received a heart transplant in 1984, introduced them to engineers experienced in axial flow pumps used to fuel space shuttles. <\/p>\n
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The first human implant of the device was performed on Friday, Nov. 13, 1998, in Berlin, Germany, by Noon, Dr. Roland Hetzer, and Dr. Matthias Loebe. At the time, the very concept of sustaining life on a continuous-flow pump was deeply contested. Skeptics questioned whether patients could survive without a pulse.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the first team in the world that showed that you can resuscitate patients with CF physiology, that you can recover them and bring them back to normal activity,\u201d Noon said in a 2014 interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 1999, Dr. Noon was inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame for his work on the device. <\/p>\n Dr. Noon\u2019s reach extended well beyond Houston. In 1996, he was part of the American surgical team chosen to accompany DeBakey to Russia for the coronary bypass surgery of then-President Boris Yeltsin. <\/p>\n Earlier, in the 1970s, Noon and DeBakey had operated on Mstislav Keldysh, head of the Soviet scientific program and a key figure in the Soviet space effort \u2014 a connection that ultimately led to a joint U.S.-Soviet artificial heart research program.<\/p>\n Photo Courtesy of Houston Methodist<\/p>\n Dr. Noon also performed one of medicine\u2019s most remarkable acts of personal loyalty when he operated on DeBakey himself. <\/p>\n \u201cRegarded as the surgeon\u2019s surgeon, George performed emergency surgery on Dr. DeBakey to repair an aortic dissection, using the procedure that Dr. DeBakey developed 50 years earlier,\u201d said Dr. Boom. \u201cHe was the former surgical director of the heart and kidney transplant program and co-director of the vascular lab at Houston Methodist Hospital. He participated in more than 600 of the approximately 1,000 heart transplants performed in the Fondren Brown OR before the program moved to Walter Tower.<\/p>\n Those who trained under Noon describe a physician who set an almost impossible standard \u2014 and made it feel attainable.<\/p>\n