Michael L. Hess
Michael L. Hess (10 August 1942 – 13 April 2019) was an American professor of cardiology and physiology at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV) who was instrumental in founding the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT), of which he served as its first president.
Early in his career he worked on the physiology of heart muscle, and in taking care of Richard Lower's patients after they had received heart transplants. His research included looking at the effects on a donor heart after reperfusion therapy following a period of low oxygen. In 1980, he had begun to contact people active in the field of heart transplantation for the purpose of gathering information on heart transplants and creating a transplant group. It led to the formation of the ISHLT. After retiring, he returned to the MCV to set up a cardio-oncology program in 2013, before retiring again in 2017.
Hess was posthumously awarded the 2020 ISHLT lifetime achievement award in April 2021. The cardiology library at the MCV, the Dr Michael Hess Library, is named for him.
Michael Lees Hess was born in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania, on 10 August 1942.[1][2] He completed his undergraduate studies from Saint Francis University in 1964,[3] before starting training to be a wrestling coach, but following an eye injury during a practice wrestle he was advised by the town's only physician to study medicine.[4] He gained admission to the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, and a professor of physiology offered to help with tuition fees in exchange for working in his new cardiac muscle research laboratory, where Hess then spent the subsequent three years.[4] As a student, his work at the lab resulted in his first publication in Nature.[4] He had co-discovered the sarcoplasmic reticulum, part of heart muscle cells.[4] He spent his senior medical school year at St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, where he helped set up a similar cardiac muscle research laboratory, before gaining his MD and completing his residency from Pittsburgh.[4]
He married Andrea Hastillo on 8 December 1968, whom he met at medical school.[2] They had one daughter.[2]
In 1971, Hess moved to Richmond and followed the muscle physiologist professor and joined the physiology faculty at the Medical College of Virginia (MCV).[1][4][a] From 1973 to 1975, he served in the US Navy, stationed at Portsmouth, Virginia.[1][4] Subsequently he returned to the MCV, where he worked in physiology, and internal medicine and cardiology.[1][4] Hess's early work at the MCV during the 1970s and 80s included taking care of Richard Lower's patients after they had received heart transplants.[5][6] His research included looking at the effects on a donor heart after reperfusion therapy following a period of low oxygen, and in 1981, he published the original description of the effects of oxygen-free radicals on donor heart muscle after they were re-suppplied with blood.[7]
