VOLUME 30, ISSUE 2
Stephen Slogoff, MD
Dean Emeritus, Stritch School of Medicine,
Loyola University Chicago
Maywood, Illinois
On the Shoulders of Giants: Legends of Texas Anesthesiology - Arthur S. Keats, M.D. - 1923-2007
Arthur S. Keats, M.D., died on August 28, 2007. He was truly “A Man for All Seasons” who was a gift to our specialty and brought us great honor from the rest of medicine. Dr. Keats graduated from Rutgers with a B.S. in 1943 and received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania three years later. His residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital from 1948-1951 was remarkable for the lifelong mutual admiration he developed with his mentor, Henry K. Beecher, M.D., and his colleague and friend, Mike Laver, M.D. After a year of practice in Zurich, Switzerland, he became the chief of anesthesia at the Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown, New York. When surgeon Michael DeBakey, M.D., asked Dr. Henry Beecher in 1954 for a candidate to become the first chair of anesthesiology at Baylor College of Medicine, he received only one name.
Arthur held that position from 1955-1974, after which he moved full time to the young and exciting frontier of cardiovascular surgery—the Texas Heart Institute (THI)—with his colleague and friend Denton Cooley, M.D. He was chief of cardiovascular anesthesia at THI until his retirement in 2005. During his long and illustrious career, Arthur Keats excelled in a variety of endeavors. What few people know is that he was a brilliant clinical anesthesiologist who, with Dr. Cooley in the 1950s and ’60s, created and published some of the most important concepts in pediatric cardiovascular anesthesia and surgery.
Arthur S. Keats. M.D.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Keats, in collaboration with his colleague Jane Telford, M.D., and others, was one of the most prolific investigators in the area of pain management and, specifically, the clinical pharmacology of opioids and opioid antagonists. As a consequence of these efforts, Dr. Keats was named to the National Institutes of Health Surgical Study Section and the editorial boards of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (1970-88) and Anesthesiology (1963-73; editor-in-chief, 1970-73.) His editorship of Anesthesiology was marked by numerous innovations that continue to serve us today. In his last year at Baylor, he also served as President of the Association of University Anesthetists (now the Association of University Anesthesiologists).
The early 1970s were home to another phase of Dr. Keats’ career. In 1967, he was elected to a 12-year directorship of the American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) and almost immediately became the dominant force for modernization of the examination system. Soon after, he was asked by ABA and ASA to become the first chair of the ASA/ABA Joint Council on In-Training Examinations. Residents and ABA candidates still benefit from his prodigious and remarkable contributions to their education and certification. Scores of question writers and examiners also have profited from his gentle support, robust wit and red pen.
I joined Arthur’s faculty at Baylor on the day that Dr. DeBakey decided that their relationship had come to an end, a common practice for Dr. DeBakey. As you now know, Arthur held almost every important nonelected position in our specialty at the time. At our first meeting, I expected to see a god-like figure. Instead he was a bear of a man at 5’8″, 250 pounds, and he almost broke my hand while shaking it with hands that had black dirt under their nails. I soon learned that he had just come in from a 4 a.m. bird hunt, an almost daily ritual during bird hunting or fishing season. When I started on July 1, 1974, he asked me if I wanted to stay at Baylor or join him at THI; it was the easiest decision of my life. Over the next 20 years, we collaborated on more than 40 articles that changed the way people looked at cardiovascular anesthesia and challenged some of the most powerful myths in our specialty. He truly relished the latter group!
In 1983, Dr. Keats gave what was to become one of the most memorable and quoted ASA Emery A. Rovenstine Memorial Lectures. In it, he challenged anesthesiologists to become part of the greater medical community and report their findings outside of our parochial journals. A year later, he received the ASA’s Distinguished Service Award while he was still in his prime. He continued to write independently and profoundly about anesthesia risk and mortality and was the first chair of the Scientific Evaluation Committee of the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation. Over his career, he delivered 12 eponymous lectures and participated in national meetings of multiple groups outside of anesthesiology.
Arthur Keats was a loving and beloved husband to Marilyn and father to his four children; he was a doting grandfather. He did not suffer fools or phonies, but if he was your friend, it was forever. For those who knew him casually or by reputation, his wit and intellect were often intimidating; for those who knew him well, he was the classic loveable curmudgeon. As was typical for many others, in the 34 years of our relationship, he went from my employer to mentor and harshest critic, to colleague and then best friend. His life was full, his friends and family will miss him, and our specialty and medicine have been enriched by his time with us. For those who would like to know him better, I strongly recommend his autobiographical essay “Between the Lines” in Careers in Anesthesiology, Autobiographical Memoirs, volume II, 1998, pages 34-59. He was truly “A Man for All Seasons.” I’m only sorry he isn’t here to proofread this commemoration of his life. As always, he would have made it better.
Stephen Slogoff, M.D., is Dean Emeritus, Stritch School of Medicine,
Loyola University Chicago, Maywood, Illinois.
