In memoriam: J. Peter Thiele, MD

J. Peter Thiele, MD

Department of Surgery, Baylor University Medical Center

Peter Thiele, a renowned cardiac surgeon at Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) in the 1970s and 1980s, passed away peacefully at home on September 29, 2020. He was 86 years old.

Peter, born in Chemnitz (Saxony, Germany) in 1934, received his medical education at the Philips University in Marburg (Hesse), the oldest Protestant institution in the country. In 1963, his obvious talents earned him a 2-year fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston under the legendary cardiovascular surgeons Michael E. DeBakey and Denton Cooley. There on the very first day of his appointment, Peter demonstrated his Teutonic resilience and composure. He and the second assistant, a Japanese surgeon, prepped and draped the patient and then quietly awaited Dr. DeBakey. On his entrance, true to his reputation as “Black Mike,” with one sweeping movement he sent the instrument tray to the floor, at the same time ripping the drapes off the patient. He kicked his assistants out of the operating room and summoned his favorite associate, Ed Garrett, to come and “rescue” him from those “idiots.” It was all part of his system, to demolish the trainee and then build him up again according to his own specifications. The next morning, Peter was at his assigned post as first assistant, while the Japanese surgeon went up to the visitors’ observation gallery, where he spent the rest of the year.

Two years later, Peter returned to Germany (1965–1968) in a futile attempt to settle there. Realizing that due to his adopted American mentality he was incompatible, he returned to the States. He did a 3-year residency in general surgery (1968–1971) at BUMC under Dr. Robert S. Sparkman, the epitome of a southern gentleman. He briefly considered calling it a day and becoming a general surgeon. At this point, Martha, his devoted wife, strongly encouraged him to carry on with his dream to be a cardiac surgeon. Thus, there followed a 2-year thoracic surgery residency at UT Southwestern in Dallas and at BUMC (1971–1973), the latter under Dr. Donald Paulson, president of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery at that time.

In the spring of 1973, we met in the Jonsson operating room—he as the thoracic resident and myself as the 1-year fellow. I was entrusted with a Belsey repair for hiatus hernia and Peter was to assist me. Soon it became obvious that he was the instructor and I was being “taken through the case.” The lesson—the superiority of coming up through the ranks of the American system—made an indelible impression on me and weighed heavily on my decision to follow Peter’s path and return to the States for full training.

Before completing his second year, Peter was offered a position in the prestigious cardiothoracic group of Drs. Ben Mitchel and Maurice Adam, then the largest private group in the Southwest. Soon his formidable skills and great personality catapulted him to the pinnacle of cardiac surgery in North Texas. He popularized the “wrap-around” technique of coronary bypass: instead of attaching separate pieces of saphenous vein to each coronary branch, a single, long piece of vein was sequentially anastomosed to three or four arterial branches before being attached to the ascending aorta. As related to me by Dr. Thomas Meyers in his colorful way, Peter holding the heart in his left palm directed the vein with his fingers over each coronary opening, sewing the two vessels together with the other hand. In this particular case, when he finished 18 minutes later, Tom’s jaw “fell to the floor,” according to his own narration! Peter’s heyday lasted about 10 glorious years, coming to an abrupt end after a catastrophic stroke. Although able to perform everyday tasks, his legendary skills and sight were not the same. As a true craftsman, he did not want to compromise. Instead, with great dignity he retired voluntarily, devoting himself to his doting family, his favorite classical music, and his collection of rare Meissen porcelain.

It was in this self-imposed professional isolation that we met again in 1987, as Baylor’s heart transplantation program was expanding and combined heart and lung transplantation was making headlines in other institutions using Norman Shumway’s technique. We were very keen to follow suit, yet the undertaking required meticulous preparation, a committed surgical team, and arduous work in the animal laboratory.¹ Peter was the first to sign up. He was there twice a week for over a year, participating in >80 animal transplants, contributing his unique perception and command of the surgical field, alerting us to problems and offering seasoned advice about solving them. Subsequently, combined heart and lung transplantation was eclipsed by the emerging lung-only transplantation, and again Peter was there for the groundwork. His incalculable contribution to both projects was publicly acknowledged at a packed 10th anniversary dinner of Baylor’s transplant program in March 1996. It was the last time we met.

I will always remember Peter Thiele as the supremely gifted cardiac surgeon who combined humility in success with dignity in adversity. The latter may be the greater achievement. As Ernest Hemingway famously said, “Courage is grace under pressure.”

—Peter A. Alivizatos, MD, FACS
Founder of Cardiothoracic Transplantation, BUMC
E-mail: [email protected]