Ted Diethrich obit

Ted Diethrich, famed heart surgeon, dead at 81

In later years, Diethrich said his cancer was likely the result of a surgical technique involving radiation.

 

He was not on the list.

Edward “Ted” Diethrich, the high-profile cardiac surgeon who started the Arizona Heart Institute and once performed open-heart surgery on live television, has died of brain cancer. He was 81.

Diethrich had said in interviews he believed his head tumors came from exposure to radiation during surgeries, using an imaging technique he helped pioneer.

Diethrich took part in a documentary in 2015 called “Invisible Impact” that aimed to bring awareness of the dangers of chronic, low-level exposure to radiation among medical professionals.

“I’m kind of a living example of excessive radiation and what it can do to tissue,” he said in the brief documentary.

Diethrich had his first job at a hospital at age 15 at the Hillsdale, Mich., hospital where his mother worked. He emptied bed pans for a quarter an hour.

He earned his medical degree at the University of Michigan, then moved to the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. There, he worked alongside the surgeon Michael DeBakey, a pioneer in heart-surgery techniques.

Diethrich arrived in Phoenix at 35, a rising star in his profession whose presence would upend the medical community. In the deal that created the Arizona Heart Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital, Diethrich had the right to choose the surgeons who worked at the center. Doctors who weren’t picked reportedly bristled with professional jealousy.

A 1972 Life magazine profile did not make his acceptance in the medical community any easier. The photo spread showed Diethrich not only performing surgery, but also water skiing. It gave the doctor the nickname "Ted Terrific."

Diethrich, reflecting on his early years in Phoenix during a 1991 interview with The Phoenix Gazette, said he did have a bent toward being high profile. But, he said, he thought it crucial to speak directly to the public about heart disease and how it could be prevented.

“I don’t think I am low-key,” he told the Gazette. “I have high energy.”

Diethrich was popular among patients who flocked to his facility. In the first five months of operation, the institute performed 400 diagnostic and surgical procedures. One-third of those patients came to Phoenix from out of state.

Diethrich became the go-to doctor for high-profile patients, including the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Scali, and televangelist Billy Graham.

Diethrich also performed surgery to remove blockage in the arteries of then-U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater in 1982.

Afterward, he held a news conference showing reporters footage of the surgery, including Goldwater’s beating heart.

In February 1983, Diethrich gave the public an unprecedented look at open-heart surgery when he performed one live on prime-time television.

The two-hour telecast, called “The Operation,” was aired live on KAET-TV (Channel 8) and aired on nearly 100 other PBS stations across the country and on the British Broadcasting Company. Some aired it live; others on tape-delay.

The patient, a retired insurance salesman named Bernard Schuler, was quoted before the operation as saying he was more nervous about the television exposure than the surgery.

Diethrich narrated the surgery while performing it, warning viewers to look away should they get squeamish. Diethrich made a long cut in the patient’s chest, then used a sternal saw — one of his inventions — to cut through the breastbone. The saw was audible in the telecast.

Diethrich took a vein that had previously been removed from Schuler’s leg and grafted it around the blocked artery. Schuler’s heart had been chilled to stop beating and he was hooked up to a heart and lung machine. After the procedure, viewers saw the machinery removed and Schuler’s heart start beating again.

Diethrich’s surgical practice faced scrutiny from the Board of Medical Examiners in the late 1980s. One board member referred to him as a “mechanic.”

Diethrich told the board that he did leave much of the pre- and post-operative work to others, stepping in for the most crucial portion of the heart surgery. He said that allowed him to perform the 10 to 12 heart surgeries, most of them bypass operations, he did each day.

The board ended up giving Diethrich a letter of reprimand, the lowest discipline available.

Beyond the news pages, Diethrich also made a splash on the society pages, as a fixture at charity balls and dinners around Phoenix.

He also became a sports figure. In 1983, he became owner of the Chicago Blitz which became the Arizona Wranglers of the United States Football League, a short-lived summer league designed to compete with the National Football League. Another team in the league, the New Jersey Generals, was owned by real-estate mogul Donald Trump.

The Wranglers made it to the USFL championship that year, though they lost to the Philadelphia Stars. By the next season, Diethrich sold to the owners of the Oklahoma Outlaws, who merged the two teams.

Diethrich also raced yachts and was a devotee of a game called Frontenis, which is popular in Mexico. It is a version of handball played on a three-walled court with tennis racquets and a hard, hollow ball known for odd bounces. Diethrich had a court built into the design of his original Arizona Heart Institute building and hosted a Frontenis tournament in 1979.